AMD Phenom Core Processors Announced

By: Sara Smith
Staff Writer
Published: Mar 27, 2008

The AMD line of Phenom processors contain the same piece of silicon rather than different pieces joined together to create double or four core processors.

AMD Phenom X3 is the latest family of processors announced Wednesday which has three cores with a 30 percent performance improvement in comparison to dual-core chips operating at the same frequency. The new X3 processor targets the mainstream PC market.

In addition, announced is the AMD Phenom X4 Black Edition which is a high end model primarily aimed at video gamers who can easily overclock. The X4 9850 comes clocked at 2.5GHz.

The AMD Phenom X3 was first unveiled in 2007 that contain the same piece of silicon rather than two or four cores running on difference pieces of silicon joined together.

The new processors primarily aimed at the mainstream PC market, but also include a high-end Phenom Black Edition chip that video gamers can easily overclock. The new high-end model is the AMD Phenom X4 chip. The Phenom X4 9850 Black Edition comes clocked at 2.5GHz.

"AMD is increasingly focused on the mainstream PC market and I think they will be quite competitive there," Rob Enderle of the Enderle Group said.

"I think we're on a little bit of a roll here," Patrick Moorhead, a marketing vice president at AMD said. "2008 is a much better year for us." Moorehead also stated that a new chipset released by the company was already receiving strong reviews.

The chipmaker has positioned the top end Phenom chips to compete with Intel's low-end quad-core chip, rather than the Extreme CPUs.