Phenom II X4 940 BE @ 6.5GHz on Liquid Helium

From Las Vegas XS OC Event, below is a link to the video of the world record setting overclock of 6.5GHz for Phenom II 940 BE using liquid helium. They also set the world record for 3DMark performance at the same event.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wB0JodKgZ0A

This 7-minutes Dragon Platform/AMD Phenom™ II video on YouTube, has received over 250,000 hits since it was posted a week ago, on January 22, 2009.

More pictures here at XtremeSystems Forum.

Happy Chinese New Year

May I personally wish all of you a healthy and smooth year ahead in the year of Ox...

GONG XI FA CAI!

Zhou Yu Min's New Year message can be seen here : http://v.sohu.com/20090124/n261940102.shtml

Fusion for Gaming version 1.0

Four months after making its beta debut, AMD's Fusion for Gaming utility has now reached version 1.0 and is available for download. Working on systems equipped with AMD CPUs, Fusion for Gaming will temporarily shut down background processes and intensify processor performance in order to increase overall gaming performance.  

To download Fusion for Gaming 1.0, click on the link below:

http://www2.ati.com/misc/fusion/AMDFusion.exe

AMD Releases DRAGON platform and Phenom II

Empowering consumers to get elite-level computing performance for under $900 U.S. dollars, AMD today launched “Dragon” platform technology for desktop PCs featuring the new AMD Phenom™ II X4 processor. Even the most demanding users such as enthusiasts and high-end gamers desire affordable systems capable of delivering HD entertainment, graphic-intensive game play at the highest settings their monitors can handle, as well as quick and easy transfer of video entertainment to and from mobile devices.

The processors launching today from AMD are the Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition and Phenom II X4 920. The major change in Phenom II is that it is built using a 45nm immersion lithography manufacturing process which, "enables higher frequencies, tighter tolerances and lower current leakage." The other major change is the L3 cache which is now three times as large at 6MB over 2MB of Phenom and the L3 cache is also 2-cycles faster. There are a number of other improvements as well, ACC (Advanced Clock Calibration) is now apparently baked into the silicon so a SB750 chipset is not required to get more overclocking headroom out of the Phenom II. Another thing to note is the HT bus on these new processors runs at 1.8GHz instead of 2GHz of the 9950 due to a trade off in priorities to get the chip ready to market. The bus isn't even close to being saturated with anything but servers so this isn't a major loss.

Major feature enhancements for 45nm AMD Phenom II:

Enhanced Total Cache: 8MB (L2 + L3)
Cool'n'Quiet 3.0 Technology: Additional power states, significantly (~40%) lower idle power and lower power consumption under moderate loads
Increased frequency: AMD Phenom II 940 3.0GHz @ 125W TDP
Massive headroom using extreme and experimental cooling techniques

Initial pricing Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition will be at $275 and the Phenom II X4 920 at $235.


"Dragon" is a synthesis of power, strength, and wisdom. Specifically, it is the fusion of the AMD Phenom™ II processor, ATI Radeon™ HD 4800 series graphics, AMD 7-series chipsets and AMD software that puts you in control. It's the PC platform designed for high-definition gaming, video processing and entertainment at an affordable price. The AMD Phenom II processor at the heart of Dragon platform technology is AMD's highest performing processor ever with superior efficiency.

The media reports:
AMDZone
Tech Report
AnandTech
CRN
Neo Seeker
GameWare
Guru3D
X-Bit Labs

AMD Athlon Neo for Ultrathin Notebooks

AMD today announced the availability of the AMD platform for ultrathin notebooks, enabling exceedingly thin and light OEM designs with rich entertainment capabilities at an affordable price. Previously codenamed “Yukon,” the platform is based on the new AMD Athlon™ Neo processor, ATI Radeon X1250 integrated graphics and optional ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 3410 discrete graphics and brings true HD entertainment to a new category of stylish notebook PCs.

The first Athlon Neo processor is the MV-40 and it's clocked at today's standard, 1.6GHz. The CPU uses a 1,600MHz Hypertransport bus, has 512k of cache and supports 32 and 64-bit operating systems. As this is a 65nm SOI part, it's not as power efficient as Intel's Atom processor, but it's still quite reasonable with a TDP of 15W. But remember the Neo has more cache, an integrated memory controller and importantly - out of order execution for much improved performance.

The chipset of choice is the M690T which is getting fairly old by now as it only features ATI's Radeon X1250 graphics which isn't exactly cutting edge, even for integrated graphics. It can use Sideband memory and the chipset also supports HDMI and DVI. The platform will support the Mobility Radeon HD 3410 discrete graphics solution which will allow the platform to play back 1080p video and maybe even some casual gaming. The Mobility Radeon HD 3410 support DDR2 memory, although it seems to be limited to 64MB. The memory clocks should be around 700MHz with the GPU clocked as high as 500MHz.

The AMD Yukon platform debuts within the HP Pavilion dv2 Entertainment Notebook PC ultrathin notebook, which measures less than one-inch thick and weighs less than four pounds. The HP Pavilion dv2 also comes equipped with a 12.1-inch diagonal LED BrightView display, nearly full-size keyboard, and optional external optical disc drive with Blu-ray capability.

HP is the first manufacturer to launch an AMD Neo based machine, the sleek 12-inch Pavillion dv2. The dv2 is powered by an Athlon Neo at 1.6GHz (TDP 15W), uses Radeon HD3410 graphics and offers up to 500GB of storage. It weighs 1.7kg and it's 2.3cm thick, a bit more than the MacBook Air or Lenovo X301, which are both 13.3-inch units. Nothing spectacular, but not bad either. You could say it's half way between a netbook and an ultraportable.



You can view the video here : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gJC9jLClHg

Anyway, here's the good part - the entry level SKU will retail at $699 (€520/£475) ex VAT, while better spec'd iterations will sell for $899 (€669/£610), and it looks nice too. The only downside is that the 12.1-inch LED backlit screen has a native resolution of 1,280x800 pixels which isn't exactly full HD resolution for those that want to watch Blu-ray movies on it via the optional external Blu-ray drive.

In introducing the AMD ultrathin notebook platform, AMD enables balanced PC performance, including the option of advanced graphics and video for true HD entertainment, all in an affordable, ultrathin notebook, bringing consumers uncompromised mobility.

AMD is expected to follow up Yukon with the Congo platform in Q2 this year and by then the chipset will be changed to a 780G derived solution which should allow for much better base performance.



For more info about YUKON and AMD Athlon Neo, read here:
Official Press Release
Bit-Tech.Net
PC World
Ars Technica
Notebook Review

News:
DetikInet