AMD’s Athlon 64 4000+ Arrives

Introduction:

Nearly five months after launching the socket 939 platforms back on June 1st, 2004 AMD has released two more high end socket 939 processors today (October 19, 2004). The two new processors are the AMD Athlon 64 FX-55 and the Athlon 64 4000+. If you have been following the Athlon 64 line you will know that this release is nothing more than a speed increase and not a major core change. Although these processors do not have any major architecture or technology changes there was one minor chance on the A64 FX-55 and that was the move to Silicon on Insulator(SOI) on just the FX-55 processor. This is the process tthe atomic structure of the transistor electrical path is strained into better alignment, which allows for improved electrical flow and increases overall processor performance.

Now that we know what has come out and what to expect let’s take a quick look at our test processor and move on to some benchmarks.

FX-55 & 4000+ 939-PIN A64 Tech Specs:

• L1 Cache Size: 64KB data + 64KB instruction = 128KB
• Total L2 Cache Size: 1024KB (exclusive) [“Claw Hammer” core]
• CPU Core Frequency: 2.40GHz for 4000+, 2.60GHz for FX-55
• CPU to Memory Controller: 2.40GHz for 4000+, 2.60GHz for FX-55
• Memory Controller: Integrated 128-bit wide memory controller
• Types of Memory: PC1600, PC2100, PC2700 and PC3200 DDR memory
• HyperTransport Links: 1
• HyperTransport Spec: 2GHz
• Effective data bandwidth: Up to 14.4 GB/sec (8GB/sec HyperTransport bandwidth plus 6.4GB/sec memory bandwidth)
• Packaging: 939-pin organic micro-PGA
• Fab location: AMD’s Fab 30 wafer fabrication facility in Dresden, Germany
• Process Technology: 130nm (.13-micron) Silicon on Insulator (SOI)
• Approximate Transistor count: 105.9 million
• Approximate Die Size: 193mm2
• Nominal Voltage: 1.50 V
• Max Ambient Case Temp: [4000+ 70C], [FX-55 63C]

CPU-Z shots of the 2.4GHz Socket 939 4000+ ClawHammer in action:

Everything looks good when viewing the processor under CPU-Z version 1.24!

Now that you know what processor we are looking at and how this is just a basic speed increase let’s take a look at some real numbers!