AMD K9
AMD K9 is the unofficial name for AMD's dual core processors based on K8 . The name AMD K9 is in the tradition of the K5 to K8 generations. The processors of the K9 generation were introduced and known as the "dual core versions of the K8". Originally, the K9 was supposed to be a completely new CPU design (codenamed Greyhound ) and appear in late 2005. The name K9 only came up with the introduction of the K10 .
Technical details
The K9 generation is designed from the ground up as a dual core processor. Namely, not only the processing unit and the cache, but also the integrated memory controller and the crossbar , to which only the second core has to be connected, are accommodated on a processor .
Since there are two processor cores, a K9 processor behaves similarly to a two-processor system in terms of software . This means that an increase in performance can only be achieved when several programs are used at the same time , unless specially adapted programs are used. These adapted programs run in several threads , each of which - independently of the other threads - can run on its own processor core.
The K9 processors pretend to be Hyper-Threading- capable in order to benefit from various optimizations that so far only benefited the Intel Pentium 4 and Intel Xeon processors.
These processors are manufactured in AMD's factories in Dresden, Fab 30 (soon to be Fab 38) and Fab 36. Initially, all Athlon X2 processors were manufactured using the 90 nm process for Socket 939 and were named Manchester or Toledo. In mid-2006, the Windsor core was finally presented, which was intended for the AM2 socket, and now contained a DDR2 memory controller and additional, rather small or at that time rather insignificant improvements and functions for the mass market, such as the Pacifica virtualization technology . While a distinction was made between the versions with 2 × 512 KiB L2 cache (Manchester) and 2 × 1024 KiB L2 cache (Toledo) for Socket 939, the Windsor core is still available with both configurations. Finally, at the end of 2006, the Brisbane core appeared, which is manufactured in AMD's new factory 36 using the 65 nm process. The finer manufacturing process reduced production costs, but higher clock rates and thus more performance were not achieved compared to the 90 nm versions. However, the standard TDP of the 65 nm models has been lowered to the EE level of the 90 nm models. To date, the Brisbane core is only available with 2 × 512 KiB L2 cache.
Naming
For the K9 generation, AMD relies on the product names “Athlon” and “Opteron” that are familiar from the K8.
K9 generation processors
The following processor families from AMD are based on the K9 generation:
Successors and Derivatives
The low-power versions are also based on the K9 micro- architecture , but have a lower power consumption. They inherited this property from the K8L.
In the medium term, the K9 generation will be replaced by the revised AMD K10 processor architecture .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Simonnet Isaïe - Trouffman: Interview du Nouvel AMD. February 28, 2007, archived from the original on July 12, 2009 ; accessed on January 1, 2014 (English, video interview with Giuseppe Amato (AMD Technical Director: Sales and Marketing EMEA) from February 2007 (no longer available)).
