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Archived news: July 2007 - September 2007


Sep 30
	I updated design of AMD K10 CPU family pages. What's included in today's update: All information on individual CPU pages was broken into a few sections: general information, architecture/micro-architecture and electrical/thermal parameters. Most important CPU features are now displayed in bold. I started working on "microprocessor glossary" - a set of pages that will explain CPU terminology. CPU pages will now link to glossary pages for all terms that exist in the glossary. The pages now include "Related processors" section. This section can be used to search for similar processors, or slower/faster CPUs. The CPU pages don't include filtering feature yet. I have this feature working, but I don't like its current interface - it's not intuitive. Next week I'm planning to work on AMD K8 family - I hope that filtering feature will be ready by the time I finish re-design of the K8 family.

Sep 19
	Quick note about this week updates: there won't be any. All this week and possibly part of next week I'm going to work on making CPU pages more usable. I may change page design slightly, add a way to quickly filter processors on a page, add some custom searches to CPU pages, and post help information and more CPU-related data. I selected K10 CPU family as a Guinea pig for this project. I hope that re-design of K10 family will be ready by the middle or end of next week.

Sep 14
	I updated Texas Instruments, IDT, RCA, Toshiba, Rockwell and other identification pages with new data. I also moved Identification of mobile Athlon 64 and Turion processors to a separate page, and added identification of boxed Turion processors to that page.

Sep 13
	Third Generation Opteron CPU chart was added to the site.

Sep 10
	AMD K10 microprocessor family was added to the site, and it contains all 9 Third-Generation Opteron processors that were introduced today. I'm not going into details about new features of these processors - some of these were posted yesterday, and some of these are mentioned on the K10 page. Later these week I'll post more pages related to K10 microprocessors - Socket F page, CPU chart, and, hopefully, identification pages and some help files that will explain new K10 features.

Sep 9
	AMD K10 micro-architecture page is now online. The page is not complete yet. I used AMD preliminary data for the page, I will revise the page as soon as AMD releases the first K10-based processors and related documentation. First K10 microprocessors are supposed to be introduced tomorrow, September 10. K10 CPUs include many new features that should improve access speed for memory and I/O devices. From these features I'd like to mention enhanced data prefetching, large shared 2 MB L2 cache, faster HyperTransport link, improved integrated memory controller, support for out-of-order data load, and write-combining feature. The K10 includes some features that should speed-up execution of all types of instructions: ability to read twice as much data from L1 cache, improve decoding rate of long integer and floating-point instructions, and faster decode units. Integer performance of K10 CPUs should benefit from Sideband Stack Optimizer (it speeds up instructions that deal with stack), and enhanced branch-prediction. Floating-Point instructions would benefit from additional functionality added to pipes in Floating Point Execution Unit - the pipes are now less limited by instruction types they can execute, which should improve concurrent execution of multiple floating point instructions. The biggest performance increase can be expected for SSEx vector instructions - those are not only decoded faster, but due to increased width of FP Execution Unit they can be executed twice as fast as compared to K8 processors.

Sep 8
	Today I added Geode NX embedded microprocessors to K7 CPU family. That was the last sub-family of K7 processors that was missing from the site, so now K7 page is finally complete. In short about Geode NX CPUs: Geode NX microprocessors are based on Thoroughbred B core, i.e. they are produced using 0.13 micron technology, have 128 KB level 1 and 256 KB level 2 caches, 266 MHz FSB, and support SSE instructions. The Geode CPUs have very low power consumption, especially NX 1250 and NX 1500 models - their maximum Thermal Design Power is 9 Watt, and typical TDP is 6 Watt. Like mobile Athlon XP-M CPUs, the Geode NX processors include PowerNow! feature. It seems that the Geode processors are rated differently than Athlon XP. For example, NX 1500 CPU is rated higher than Athlon XP-M 1400+ AXML1400GYS3C, while the internal frequency of NX 1500 is 200 MHz lower than the one of Athlon XP-M 1400+.		AMD Geode NX 1500
		AMD Sempron 2200+ - SDA2200DUT3D (SDA2200BOX) AMD Sempron 2400+ - SDA2400DUT3D (SDA2400BOX) AMD Sempron 3000+ - SDA3000DUT4D (SDA3000BOX) AMD Geode NX 1500 - ANXL1500FGC3S

Sep 5
	Last Sunday I added a poll to the site, and today I changed it so it's now possible to post comments on the poll results page. Poll comments are not pre-moderated like all other comments on the site, and you don't need to register to post them. Feel free to post any comments about the topic of the poll, which is "What architecture is going to be faster: AMD Barcelona or Intel Core 2?". AMD Barcelona server-class processors are expected to be released next Monday, September 10. Barcelona processors are based on completely new AMD microarchitecture - K10, that includes many improvements, such as large L3 cache shared between all 4 cores, ability to execute up to three 128-bit SSE instructions per cycle, improved data pre-fetching, enhanced branch prediction, faster HyperTransport link, and many other features. I hope that by the time Barcelona processors are released I will put online K10 micro-architecture page.

Sep 1
	Yesterday I added pictures of 6502 CPUs, including some 6502, 6504, 6512 and 65C102. Looking at individual CPU pages it's difficult to see what the difference between those chips. Today I added a page where you can see the differences between 65xx, 65Cxx and 65SCxx microprocessors. I also updated K8 family with recently released Sempron 64, Mobile Sempron, Turion 64 X2 and Athlon 64 X2 microprocessors. Identification pages and AMD model numbers pages were updated too. I didn't add any processors from Athlon X2 family yet - I'm planning to do it in the near future.

Aug 31
	I misplaced Pentium III mobile modules and can't post their pictures right now. Instead, I decided to update MOS Technology 6502 family with new CPU pictures. The most interesting processor posted today is Synertek 6502B in ceramic package. This type of package is rare for 6502 family, and there is only a small number of chips in that package is available today. Although other posted processors are in much-less appealing plastic packages, there are two unusual processors there that I'd like to point out. One of them is Ricoh RP2A03E - this chip was used in NES game consoles and it contains 6502-compatible core. Another unusual 6502 CPU is HKE65SC02PL. I don't have any data on this chip, if anybody know the manufacturer or any other information about it please post a comment or send me an e-mail. By the way, if anybody has Synertek or any other other 6502 CPU in ceramic package and is willing to sell it for reasonable price please contact me.		Synertek SY6502B
		MOS Technology 6504B Ricoh RP2A03E Rockwell R6512P Rockwell R65C102P4 Synertek SY6502B Unknown HKE65SC02PL

Aug 27
	New S-spec numbers, mostly Xeon ones, were added to the S-Spec database. All recently submitted S-Spec numbers were added too. Later this week I'm going to post data on all recently released AMD and Intel microprocessors.

Aug 25
	Today I posted information on Mobile Pentium III modules. Mobile modules are not just the CPUs - they are small circuit boards with a CPU, 82443BX north bridge, voltage regulator and MMC-2 connector. Voltage regulator is used to convert 12 Volt module voltage to voltage required for the CPU (usually 1.6V) and nortbridge chip. Feature-wise processors on these mobile modules are not different from mobile Pentium III CPUs. All processors have 32 KB L2 cache, integrated 256 KB L2 cache, and support the same power-saving modes and mobile Pentium III microprocessors. Many mobile modules support SpeedStep technology. I have a few of Pentium III modules in my collection and will post their pictures next week.

Aug 24
	I added more pictures of Pentium III Coppermine processors, including a few engineering sample, and one picture of Coppermine-T CPU. Although our S-Spec database has a few production S-spec codes for Coppermine-T processors, finding these CPUs is almost impossible except for one - SL5QJ. This Pentium III 1 GHz microprocessor is the only CPU with cD0 stepping that is supported by a few Intel server boards with AGTL system bus. SL5QJ processor was manufactured in large quantities, so there are plenty of them for sale on auction sites like eBay.		Intel Pentium III 1000
		Intel Pentium III 600 - 600E/256/100/1.65V Intel Pentium III 650 - RB80526PY650256 (BX80526F667256) Intel Pentium III 667 - Engineering sample Intel Pentium III 800 - RB80526PZ800256 (BX80526C800256E) Intel Pentium III 1000 - RB80526PY001256 (BX80526F1000256) Intel Pentium III 1000 - 1000/256/133/1.75 and ES Intel Pentium III 1000 - RK80526PZ001256 (BX80526C1000256) (Production part and ES) Intel Pentium III 1000 - RK80533PZ001256

Aug 21
	I wanted to announce new tool today - bulk S-Spec lookup tool. This tool can be used to quickly get information on multiple S-Spec numbers at once. You can feed it any page with S-spec numbers from the net, you can even copy and paste pages in HTML format (all HTML will be stripped). You can type in s-spec numbers manually if you want to. The tool scans the text that you typed/pasted and replaces anything that looks like an S-Spec number with a link to S-Spec page. If the tool cannot find S-Spec number in CPU-World database than the S-Spec number will be displayed on red background. The tool could be useful for buyers and sellers of lots of Intel processors, as well as for people like me who always looks for new S-spec numbers.

Aug 19
	Pentium III Xeon page was updated with information on 0.18 micron Xeon microprocessors. There were versions of these processors with 100 and 133 MHz Front Side Bus frequency. All Xeons with 133 MHz FSB were in effect Pentium III Coppermine processors in Xeon package. They had 256 KB level 2 cache integrated on the processor core and didn't support quad-processing. On a plus side these processors were "cheap". For instance, 600 MHz, 667 MHz and 733 MHz versions of desktop Pentium 3 CPUs and Xeons were announced at the same day, and the Xeons were only $50 more expensive than desktop processors. Still, performance of these Xeons were not better than performance of desktop processors. Later Intel released real Xeon processors based on 0.18 micron core. These Xeon microprocessors had lower FSB, but they could work in 4-way systems and had very large L2 cache - up to 2 MB.		Intel Pentium III Xeon 667/256KB
		Intel Pentium III Xeon 600/256KB - 80526KZ600256 5/12V (BX80526KZ600256) Intel Pentium III Xeon 667/256KB - 80526KZ667256 5/12V (BX80526KZ667256)

Aug 18
	Today I added information on 0.25 micron Pentium III Xeon microprocessors. It wasn't difficult as there are only 6 of them :) 0.25 micron Xeon processors are based on Tanner core, which is very close to Pentium III Katmai core. There are many similarities between Xeons and desktop Pentium 3 CPUs. The differences are: Xeons have larger level 2 cache (up to 2 MB) that is running at CPU frequency, and the processors are packaged in the same bulky and heavy cartridge as Pentium II Xeons. I believe Pentium II and III Xeon microprocessors are the biggest and heaviest x86 processors ever produced.

Aug 14
	I posted pictures of 6 mobile Pentium III-M processors. 5 out 6 processors are qualification or engineering samples. All processors are in micro FC-PGA package - this package looks almost identical to the package used by mobile Pentium 4-M processors, the difference is only in location of one pin. Despite of that both packages will fit into socket 479. Even more confusing - Pentium M and Celeron M processors have different pinout (again, the difference is in location of one pin), but they also fit into the same socket. It suffices to say that only one processor type (Pentium III-M, Pentium 4-M or Pentium/Celeron M) will work in the socket 479 depending on motherboard type. On related note - that is, related to mobile microprocessors. I received pictures of a strange microprocessor which I believe is a mobile processor based on 0.45 micron Penryn core. You can see the CPU pictures in the Mobile Penryn CPU? thread.		Intel Mobile Pentium III-M 1200
		Intel Mobile Pentium III-M 866 - RH80530GZ866512 / RH80530GZ86651E (BXM80530B866512) Intel Mobile Pentium III-M 1000 - RH80530GZ001512 / RH80530GZ00151E (BXM80530B100GD) (Production part and ES) Intel Mobile Pentium III-M 1066 - RH80530GZ004512 / RH80530GZ00451E (BXM80530B106GD) Intel Mobile Pentium III-M 1133 - RH80530GZ006512 / RH80530GZ00651E (BXM80530B113GD) Intel Mobile Pentium III-M 1200 - RH80530GZ009512 / RH80530GZ00951E (BXM80530B120GD)

Aug 12
	Three Pentium III core pages were added today - Coppermine, Coppermine-T and Tualatin. These pages do not have data on Celeron and mobile Celeron versions of the cores - I decided to add those as separate pages later. Next week I'm planning to update descriptions of some Pentium 3 CPU families and individual CPUs, and I might as well add Pentium III Xeon processors. Also, more pictures of mobile and desktop Pentium III microprocessors will be coming soon.

Aug 10
	CPU sockets page was updated. Before it had just a list of links. Now it has some useful information about supported families and CPU/bus frequencies. CPU families and supported CPU frequencies were updated on other socket pages too. I also added all recently submitted S-Spec numbers - thanks to people who submitted them!

Aug 9
	I created Mobile Pentium III-M CPU chart and posted 4 pictures of Pentium III Tualatin microprocessors. One of the Tualatin CPUs is quite interesting - it's a low voltage Pentium III-S 800 MHz in FC-BGA package. While this processor is in the same package as mobile Pentium III-M processors, it's not a mobile CPU. The processor doesn't support SpeedStep technology, doesn't support Deep Sleep and Deeper Sleep low-power states, and may work in dual-processor systems.		Intel Low Voltage Pentium III 800
		Intel Low Voltage Pentium III 800 - RJ80530KZ800512 Intel Pentium III 1000 - RK80530PZ001256 (BX80530C1000256) (production version and ES) Intel Pentium III-S 1133 - RK80530KZ006512 / RK80530KZ00651E (BX80530C1133512)

Aug 8
	I added information on mobile Pentium III-M CPUs. Pentium III-M processors were based 0.13 micron Tualatin core. This core had larger size of L2 cache, lower core voltage and lower power requirements and than previous Pentium III core - Coppermine. Tualatin processors, both desktop and mobile, included Data Prefetch Logic feature. This feature improves processor performance by speculatively fetching data into L2 cache before the CPU core requests data from L1 cache. Mobile Pentium III-M processors were packaged into 478-pin micro FC-PGA and 479-ball micro FC-BGA packages. By the way, Pentium III-M 478-pin micro FC-PGA package is different from 478-pin FC-PGA packages used by mobile Pentium 4-M processors and Celeron M/Pentium M processors.

Aug 6
	Today I added Western Electric 32200 CPU family. The WE32200 CPU was a successor to WE32100 (I posted data on it last month), and it included a few improvements, such as dynamic bus sizing, support for non-aligned memory access, additional instructions, registers and addressing modes. The 32200 processor was running at higher frequencies than the 32100. It seems to me that the fastest WE32200 CPU was running at 24 MHz. Original processor datasheet mentions 24 MHz and "higher frequency versions", but the datasheet only includes data on 24 MHz part, and so far I couldn't find any reliable data on faster versions of the 32200 CPU.		Western Electric WE32200-22
		Western Electric WE32200-22

Aug 3
	I added information on Pentium III Coppermine-T and Tualatin processors. One note about Coppermine-T CPUs - there were too many rumors about this Pentium III core and too few facts. It is known that this core is based on 0.18 micron Coppermine core, and has core voltage and power requirements similar to Coppermine CPUs. The Coppermine-T core should support both AGTL+ and AGTL system buses. Based on these facts I was able to find out part numbers and other information on the processors. It was rumored that Coppermine-T CPUs will run at higher frequencies than Coppermine microprocessors. If you look at the list of Coppermine-T processors you'll see that the fastest CPU in the list runs at 1.13 GHz, that is it's not faster than Coppermine CPUs. I believe Intel didn't release faster processors because the whole line of desktop Coppermine-T processors was cancelled on early stages, when only small number of production processors was manufactured.

Aug 2
	I added mobile and desktop Pentium III CPU charts. Desktop Pentium III chart doesn't include Tualatin processors yet - they will be added this weekend.

Jul 30
	I added four new CPU collector sites to Links section: CPU-Galaxy, CPU-Me, "Debs CPU collection and information site" and Faber's CPU collection page.

Jul 29
	Intel Core family page now has information on Core Duo processors.

Jul 28
	Many pages were updated today. From relatively big updates I wanted to mention addition of more than 40 new S-Spec numbers to the S-Spec database and update of Core 2 Duo CPU family with recently released Core 2 Duo, Core 2 Quad and Core 2 Extreme microprocessors.

Jul 27
	Intel Core CPU family and Core Solo CPU chart were added to the site. Right now Core family page has only information on Core Solo processors. Data on Core Duo processor will added in the few days.

Jul 26
	I uploaded new pictures of Athlon XP microprocessors.		AMD Athlon XP 3200+
		AMD Athlon XP 1800+ - AXDA1800DLT3C AMD Athlon XP 1800+ - AXDA1800DUT3C AMD Athlon XP 2200+ - AXDA2200DKV3C AMD Athlon XP 2500+ - AXDA2500DKV4D AMD Athlon XP 2600+ - AXDA2600DKV4D AMD Athlon XP 2800+ - AXDA2800DKV4D AMD Athlon XP 3200+ - AXDA3200DKV4E

Jul 23
	I added CPU chart pages for Celeron processors based on Pentium III and Pentium 4 micro-architectures. This data is also available now in combined CPU chart.

Jul 21
	I added Western Electric 32106 FPU family to the site.		Western Electric WE32106-10
		Western Electric WE32106-10 (100-pin PGA) Western Electric WE32106-18

Jul 20
	New Core 2 Duo, Core Duo and Core Solo S-spec numbers were added to S-spec database. I also updated many existing Core Duo/Solo S-spec numbers.

Jul 18
	Minor update today - I added Celeron D CPU chart page. CPU chart pages for other Celeron processors will be posted later this week.

Jul 15
	As I planned I added Pentium Extreme Edition CPUs and CPU charts for the following CPU families: AMD K8 Athlon XP-M, Pentium Dual-Core, Pentium D and Pentium Extreme Edition. Combined CPU chart was also updated.

Jul 14
	I added information on Pentium D CPUs. Now the site have all desktop Pentium 4-based processors but Pentium Extreme Edition CPUs. Pentium Extreme Edition family will be added in the next two days, and then I'll create CPU charts for all recently added families.

Jul 13
	I posted data on Pentium Dual-Core CPU family.

Jul 12
	Socket 939 page was added to the site.

Jul 10
	I added pictures of 4 Celeron CPUs based on Willamette and Northwood cores. I also added short descriptions of those lines of Celeron processors.		Intel Celeron 1600
		Intel Celeron 1600 - RK80531RC025128 Intel Celeron 1700 - RK80531RC029128 (BX80531P170G128) Intel Celeron 1800 - RK80531RC033128 (BX80531P180G128) Intel Celeron 2100 - RK80532RC045128 (BX80532RC2100B)

Jul 7
	I added part numbers and some other information on Celeron D CPU family. There is no real family description yet - that will be updated later (as usually).

Jul 5
	Western Electric 32100 CPU family was added to the site. WE 32100 CPUs were manufactured in both square 125-pin PGA and 100-pin rectangular PGA packages. Right now I have only one WE32100 in square PGA package - as you can see it's not in the best condition, but I hope that soon I'll find a better looking replacement.		Western Electric WE32100-18
		Western Electric WE32100-18

Jul 4
	I created new Pentium Dual-Core and Pentium Dual-Core Mobile s-spec pages. Also, the S-Spec database was updated with many, mainly Xeon, QDF numbers (these are Qxxxx numbers used for engineering and qualification samples).

Jul 1
	Motorola 6809 architecture page was added to the site.

Archived News
2007:	[Jan 2007 - Mar 2007]	[Apr 2007 - Jun 2007]
2006:	[Jan 2006 - Mar 2006]	[Apr 2006 - Jun 2006]	[Jul 2006 - Sep 2006]	[Oct 2006 - Dec 2006]
2005:	[Jan 2005 - Mar 2005]	[Apr 2005 - Jun 2005]	[Jul 2005 - Sep 2005]	[Oct 2005 - Dec 2005]
2004:	[Jan 2004 - Mar 2004]	[Apr 2004 - Jun 2004]	[Jul 2004 - Sep 2004]	[Oct 2004 - Dec 2004]
2003:	[Jan 2003 - Mar 2003]	[Apr 2003 - Jun 2003]	[Jul 2003 - Sep 2003]	[Oct 2003 - Dec 2003]
2002:			[May 2002 - Aug 2002]	[Sep 2002 - Dec 2002]