With our review done I did the one thing I've been keeping myself from doing for the past week: I pulled the heatsink off my Kabini review notebook and grabbed a shot of the SoC. I guess this is technically the world's first consumer quad-core x86 SoC. Haswell will come in a single-chip solution as well but only as a dual-core part. Kabini needs no companion platform/IO controller chip, everything is integrated on this single piece of silicon. There are also two GCN compute units in there. I'm sure AMD will have more accurate numbers shortly, but using my completely unimpressive calipers I measured the die at 10.35mm x 10.35mm (107mm^2). I figure the actual number will be somewhere in the range of 104 - 112mm^2...
AMD Reveals More Llano Details at ISSCC: 32nm, Power Gating, 4-cores, Turbo?
AMD shared some more details with us about Llano. The 32nm processor will feature power gating and a host of other power optimizations that lead us to believe...
59 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 2/8/2010
New Westmere Details Emerge: Power Efficiency and 4/6 Core Plans
Intel let loose some new information on Westmere today about power efficiency as well as its upcoming quad-core and 6-core chips. Updated: Desktop quad-core plans not certain!
45 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 2/3/2010
Unlocking the Phenom II X2 555: 3.2GHz Quad-Core for $99
No I'm not talking about bypassing multiplier locks, the Black Edition takes care of that already. I'm talking about flipping a switch to enable the two disabled cores...
53 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 1/28/2010
Why Pine Trail Isn't Much Faster Than the First Atom
We were puzzled by Pine Trail's lack of performance. In some cases it was faster than the original Atom, but in most it hardly showed a difference -...
33 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 1/27/2010
AMD's New Year Refresh: Athlon II X4 635, Phenom II X2 555, Athlon II X2 255 & Athlon II X3 440
It's time for AMD's response to Intel's Clarkdale launch. Cheaper prices and higher clock speeds thanks to yield improvements at Global Foundries.
64 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 1/25/2010
The Intel Core i3 530 Review - Great for Overclockers & Gamers
It costs $113 but with minimal effort you can reach 4GHz with the stock cooler. At those speeds (and at stock) it's a great CPU for gamers. ...
106 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 1/22/2010
The Clarkdale Review: Intel's Core i5 661, i3 540 & i3 530
Intel's first 32nm chips are here. It's time for competition below $200 as Clarkdale takes AMD's Phenom IIs and Athlon IIs head on with more than just performance. Clarkdale...
95 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 1/4/2010
AMD Athlon 2650e & X2 3250e - Better than Atom for SFF Desktops
We call them the Dell zino HD CPUs, because they're found in Dell's zino HD. You can buy a decent nettop based on Intel's Atom processor or one...
41 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 12/31/2009
The Core i7 Giveaway Winner, Next Contest Soon
AnandTech reader Gregory Peng sent in his first impressions of the brand new Core i7 system he won last month.
52 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 12/22/2009
Intel Atom D510: Pine Trail Boosts Performance, Cuts Power
After over a year, we finally get our first real update to Intel's Atom processor. An integrated memory controller boosts performance by roughly 10%, and we finally get...
41 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 12/21/2009
The FTC Sues Intel Over CPU & GPU Competition
With settlement talks breaking down, the FTC has sued Intel over anti-competitive actions in the GPU and CPU markets. We take a look at the charges, and what the...
115 by Ryan Smith on 12/16/2009
AMD Core Counts and Bulldozer: Preparing for an APU World
Updated! We clarify one of the more confusing points of AMD's nomenclature with regards to Bulldozer. AMD is referring to integer cores whenever it mentions core count in...
95 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 11/30/2009
Core i7 Giveaway Winner, AT on Kindle, Site Redesign Preview and More
We have a winner! We've also got AnandTech offered on Amazon's Kindle and a preview of the new AnandTech site redesign. I hint about a call to...
98 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 11/13/2009
AMD and Intel Settle Their Differences: AMD Gets To Go Fabless
Today marks a monumental day in the CPU world, as AMD and Intel have settled their differences and dropped all suits against each other. The ramifications are monumental: AMD...
67 by Ryan Smith on 11/12/2009
AMD Unveils Bulldozer & Bobcat: 2011 Microachitectures
Could this be AMD's comeback? It sure looks bold at a high level...
68 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 11/11/2009
AMD's 2010 - 2011 Roadmaps: ~1B Transistor Llano APU, Bobcat and Bulldozer
There's not much to talk about from a CPU standpoint with AMD in 2010, so AMD is heavily focused on 2011 and what it plans to do with its...
60 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 11/11/2009
Giveaway: Win a Lynnfield Core i7 System
That's right, just in time for the holidays we've partnered up with Intel to give away a complete Lynnfield Core i7 System.
4276 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 11/4/2009
AMD's Athlon II X3 435 & New Energy Efficient CPUs: Killing Intel Below $90
Hot on the heels of last months' $99 quad-core, AMD is back with a higher performance alternative to Intel's Pentium E6xxx series. It's the return of the triple core...
178 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 10/20/2009
Marvell's ARMADA: Custom Designed ARM SoCs Break 1GHz
Anyone can license ARM's microprocessor architectures, Marvell chooses to license only the instruction set and build its own designs. We look at Marvell's architecture to see if it's...
28 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 10/19/2009
The Real Conroe Successor: Clarkdale & All You Need to Know about Westmere
Intel's 32nm Nehalem tick is almost upon us. Westmere isn't a radical departure from Nehalem, but there are a few enhancements worth talking about. We go...
96 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 9/24/2009