AMD Phenom™ II Key Architectural Features

True quad-core and triple-core designed from the ground up for better communication between cores.
- Benefit: Cores can communicate on die rather than on package for better performance

Helps improve system performance and efficiency by directly connecting the processors, the memory controller, and the I/O to the CPU.
Designed to enable simultaneous 32- and 64-bit computing
Integrated Memory Controller
- Benefits: Increases application performance by dramatically reducing memory latency
- Scales memory bandwidth and performance to match compute needs
- HyperTransport™ Technology provides up to 16.0GB/s peak bandwidth per processor—reducing I/O bottlenecks
- Up to 37GB/s total delivered processor-to-system bandwidth (HyperTransport bus + memory bus)

Shared L3 cache (either 6MB or 4MB)
512K L2 cache per core
- Benefit: Shortened access times to the highly accessed data for better performance.

128-bit floating point unit (FPU)
High performance (128bit internal data path) floating point unit per core.
- Benefit: Larger data paths and quicker floating point calculations for better performance.

One 16-bit link at up to 4000MT/s
Up to 8.0GB/s HyperTransport™ I/O bandwidth; Up to 16GB/s in HyperTransport Generation 3.0 mode
Up to 37GB/s total delivered processor-to-system bandwidth (HyperTransport bus + memory bus)
- Benefit: Quick access times to system I/O for better performance.

A high-bandwidth, low-latency integrated memory controller
Supports PC2-8500 (DDR2-1066); PC2-6400 (DDR2-800), PC2-5300 (DDR2-667), PC2-4200 (DDR2-533) or PC2-3200 (DDR2-400) SDRAM unbuffered DIMMs – AM2+
Support for unregistered DIMMs up to PC2 8500(DDR2-1066MHz) and PC3 10600 (DDR3-1333MHz) – AM3
Up to 17.1GB/s memory bandwidth for DDR2 and up to 21GB/s memory bandwidth for DDR3
- Benefit: Quick access to system memory for better performance.

Silicon feature-set enhancements designed to improve the performance, reliability, and security of existing and future virtualization environments by allowing virtualized applications with direct and rapid access to their allocated memory.
- Benefit: Helps virtualization software to run more securely and efficiently enabling a better experience when dealing with virtual systems

Enhanced power management features which automatically and instantaneously adjusts performance states and features based on processor performance requirements
For quieter operation and reduced power requirements
- Benefit: Enables cooler and quieter platform designs by providing extremely efficient performance and energy usage.

AMD CoolCore™ Technology

Reduces processor energy consumption by turning off unused parts of the processor. For example, the memory controller can turn off the write logic when reading from memory, helping reduce system power.
Works automatically without the need for drivers or BIOS enablement.
Power can be switched on or off within a single clock cycle, saving energy with no impact to performance.
- Benefit: Helps users get more efficient performance by dynamically activating or turning off parts of the processor.

Enables more granular power management capabilities to reduce processor energy consumption.
Separate power planes for cores and memory controller, for optimum power consumption and performance, creating more opportunities for power savings within the cores and memory controller.
- Benefit: Helps improve platform efficiency by providing on demand memory performance while still allowing for decreased system power consumption