It would seem like progress with AMD's 65 nanometre manufacturing is going well, because the company has quietly introduced a Brisbane-based Athlon 64 X2 3600+.
Things are a bit more complex than that though, because the processor is not listed on AMD's official price list; instead, Newegg has started stocking an OEM version of the processor.
The new chip comes with a 1.9GHz core clock (with a 9.5x multiplier) and 2x512KB of L2 cache. Newegg is stocking the processor for $115 USD, which makes for a very attractive price.
However, the online retailer states that the chip must be bought as part of a CPU / motherboard combo that will set you back $168.99. The motherboard included in the bundle is Biostar's TForce 550 motherboard (nForce 550) - at that sort of price, you can't really expect very much from the board.
The specifications differ from the original X2 3600+, which was said to be an OEM-only release in the second half of last year. The original Athlon 64 X2 3600+ was manufactured on AMD's 90 nanometre SOI process and came clocked at 2.0GHz. Instead of reducing the clock speeds, AMD opted to dock the L2 cache - the X2 3600+ only had 256KB of L2 cache per core back then.
It'll be interesting to see how this Brisbane performs, because the 65 nanometre X2 5000+ EE was slower than the 90 nanometre Windsor based X2 5000+ it will eventually replace. There shouldn't be much competition for the X2 3600+ though, because Intel's cheapest Core 2 products are priced well above $150 at the moment. The only real contender that it has to deal with is Intel's Pentium D 915, which Newegg sells at exactly the same price as AMD's budget dual-core processor. We wonder how long it'll be before you'll be able to buy X2 3600+ on its own.
Thanks to The Tech Report for the tip.
Things are a bit more complex than that though, because the processor is not listed on AMD's official price list; instead, Newegg has started stocking an OEM version of the processor.
The new chip comes with a 1.9GHz core clock (with a 9.5x multiplier) and 2x512KB of L2 cache. Newegg is stocking the processor for $115 USD, which makes for a very attractive price.
However, the online retailer states that the chip must be bought as part of a CPU / motherboard combo that will set you back $168.99. The motherboard included in the bundle is Biostar's TForce 550 motherboard (nForce 550) - at that sort of price, you can't really expect very much from the board.
The specifications differ from the original X2 3600+, which was said to be an OEM-only release in the second half of last year. The original Athlon 64 X2 3600+ was manufactured on AMD's 90 nanometre SOI process and came clocked at 2.0GHz. Instead of reducing the clock speeds, AMD opted to dock the L2 cache - the X2 3600+ only had 256KB of L2 cache per core back then.
It'll be interesting to see how this Brisbane performs, because the 65 nanometre X2 5000+ EE was slower than the 90 nanometre Windsor based X2 5000+ it will eventually replace. There shouldn't be much competition for the X2 3600+ though, because Intel's cheapest Core 2 products are priced well above $150 at the moment. The only real contender that it has to deal with is Intel's Pentium D 915, which Newegg sells at exactly the same price as AMD's budget dual-core processor. We wonder how long it'll be before you'll be able to buy X2 3600+ on its own.
Thanks to The Tech Report for the tip.
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