AMD Phenom II X4 945 and 955BE processors tested
AMD is trying really hard to get the most out of their processor series. As such nearly on a bi-monthly basis they introduce a new processor, sometimes even two at a time. And that's good, great in fact as it shows that the new Phenom II architecture is working out really well for them.
On that note, AMD today will release two more new processors in the Phenom II processor line. Ever since the release of Phenom II things have been going really well for AMD, yields are good and the processors certainly can clock much higher than I originally anticipated. On air the BE edition processors often can be fairly easily lifted towards 3.6 GHz, so it's not exactly a surprise that we heard about a Phenom II 955BE processor back in march already ... with the launch today.
Yields are good, clock frequencies go up, performance goes up. And that's nice as the Phenom II series processors offer great performance for the money you have to lay down on the table. AMD Phenom series processors are slowly ripening, and are aging like a fine wine (they get better over time).
What is AMD releasing today:
* AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition 3.2 GHz at a suggested price of $245 USD
* AMD Phenom II X4 945 3.0 GHz at a suggested price of $225 USD
AMD started its Dragon desktop platform with the introduction of their flagship CPU, the Phenom II X4 940. This processor however, is not compliant with the AM3 socket, and as such does not support DDR3 memory. Based on the 45 nm Deneb core the two processors released today supports socket AM3 motherboards, and DDR3 memory.
Today AMD is releasing two processors in the Phenom II line-up, the Phenom II 955BE and the Phenom II X4 945 processor. Both processors can be considered and positioned in AMDs high-end segment, yet will be priced friendly.
Also a good thing to be very aware of .. these AM3-packaged processors will fit into existing AM2+ motherboards as well. Pop in the latest BIOS on your AMD 790FX/GX DDR motherboard, and you will be good to go as well.
Anyway, good gosh darn it .. I'm already going into detail whilst we still are in the introduction.
For this review we will test the Phenom II X4 955BE processor yet also have a look at AMD Phenom II X4 945 performance. Move onwards to the next page please where we'll startup this review with a technical overview followed by an in-depth benchmark report to see where AMD is with it's fastest processor anno Q2 2009. And sure, though this primarily is a Phenom II X4 955BE review, we include AMD Phenom II X4 945 processor results as well, yeah we like to eat our cake and a little icing on top of it.
AMD Phenom II X4 955BE and 945
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
AMD
AMD considers the quad core Phenoms to be the first "true" quad core design, as these processors are a monolithic multi-core design (all cores on the same piece of silicon die), unlike Intel's Core 2 Quad series which are a multi-chip module (MCM) design. The processors are on the Socket AM2+ platform.[2]
Before Phenom's original release, a flaw was discovered in the translation lookaside buffer (TLB) that could cause a system lock-up in rare circumstances. Phenom processors up to and including stepping "B2" and "BA" are affected by this bug. BIOS and software workarounds disable the TLB, and typically incur a performance penalty of at least 10%.[3] This penalty was not accounted for in pre-release previews of Phenom, hence the performance of early Phenoms delivered to customers is expected to be less than the preview benchmarks. "B3" stepping Phenom processors were released March 27, 2008 without the TLB bug and with "xx50" model numbers.[4]
An AMD subsidiary has released a patch for the Linux kernel,[5] which it said has received "minimal functional testing", to overcome this bug by software emulation of accessed- and dirty-bits causing little performance loss.[citation needed]
AMD has launched several models of the Phenom processor in 2007/2008 and more recently an upgraded model Phenom II in 2009.[6][7][8][9]
AMD Phenom processor family
AMD K10 Desktop
Quad-core Triple-core Dual-core
AMD Phenom logo as of 2007 AMD Phenom logo as of 2008 AMD Phenom logo as of 2008 AMD Athlon X2 logo as of 2007
Code-named Agena Toliman Kuma
Core 65nm 65nm 65nm
Date released Mar 2008 Mar 2008 Dec 2008
AMD Phenom logo as of 2008 AMD Phenom logo as of 2009 AMD Phenom logo as of 2009
Code-named Deneb Heka
Core 45nm 45nm
Date released Feb 2009 Feb 2009
List of AMD Phenom microprocessors
Before Phenom's original release, a flaw was discovered in the translation lookaside buffer (TLB) that could cause a system lock-up in rare circumstances. Phenom processors up to and including stepping "B2" and "BA" are affected by this bug. BIOS and software workarounds disable the TLB, and typically incur a performance penalty of at least 10%.[3] This penalty was not accounted for in pre-release previews of Phenom, hence the performance of early Phenoms delivered to customers is expected to be less than the preview benchmarks. "B3" stepping Phenom processors were released March 27, 2008 without the TLB bug and with "xx50" model numbers.[4]
An AMD subsidiary has released a patch for the Linux kernel,[5] which it said has received "minimal functional testing", to overcome this bug by software emulation of accessed- and dirty-bits causing little performance loss.[citation needed]
AMD has launched several models of the Phenom processor in 2007/2008 and more recently an upgraded model Phenom II in 2009.[6][7][8][9]
AMD Phenom processor family
AMD K10 Desktop
Quad-core Triple-core Dual-core
AMD Phenom logo as of 2007 AMD Phenom logo as of 2008 AMD Phenom logo as of 2008 AMD Athlon X2 logo as of 2007
Code-named Agena Toliman Kuma
Core 65nm 65nm 65nm
Date released Mar 2008 Mar 2008 Dec 2008
AMD Phenom logo as of 2008 AMD Phenom logo as of 2009 AMD Phenom logo as of 2009
Code-named Deneb Heka
Core 45nm 45nm
Date released Feb 2009 Feb 2009
List of AMD Phenom microprocessors
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Blu-ray Disc
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 | |
 | |
| Media type | High-density optical disc |
|---|---|
| Encoding | MPEG-2, H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, and VC-1 |
| Capacity | 25 GB (single layer) 50 GB (dual layer) |
| Read mechanism | 405 nm laser: 1× at 36 Mbit/s 2× at 72 Mbit/s 4× at 144 Mbit/s 6× at 216 Mbit/s[1] 12× at 432 Mbit/s |
| Developed by | Blu-ray Disc Association |
| Usage | Data storage, High-definition video High-definition audio and PlayStation 3 games |
Blu-ray Disc (also known as Blu-ray or BD) is an optical disc storage media format. Its main uses are high-definition video and data storage. The disc has the same dimensions as a standard DVD or CD.
The name Blu-ray Disc is derived from the blue laser (violet coloured) used to read and write this type of disc. Because of its shorter wavelength (405 nm), substantially more data can be stored on a Blu-ray Disc than on the DVD format, which uses a red (650 nm) laser. A dual layer Blu-ray Disc can store 50 GB, almost six times the capacity of a double-dual layer DVD (or more than 10 times if single-layer).
During the high definition optical disc format war, Blu-ray Disc competed with the HD DVD format. On February 19, 2008, Toshiba — the main company supporting HD DVD — announced it would no longer develop, manufacture, and market HD DVD players and recorders,[2] leading almost all other HD DVD companies to follow suit, effectively ending the format war.
Blu-ray Disc was developed by the Blu-ray Disc Association, a group representing consumer electronics, computer hardware, and motion picture production. As of August 27, 2008 more than 780 Blu-ray Disc titles have been released in the United States and more than 480 Blu-ray Disc titles have been released in Japan.[3][4] By the end of 2008, there is expected to be a total of 1220 Blu-ray Disc titles released in the United States.[5]
| |
| |
| Media type | High-density optical disc |
|---|---|
| Encoding | MPEG-2, H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, and VC-1 |
| Capacity | 25 GB (single layer) 50 GB (dual layer) |
| Read mechanism | 405 nm laser: 1× at 36 Mbit/s 2× at 72 Mbit/s 4× at 144 Mbit/s 6× at 216 Mbit/s[1] 12× at 432 Mbit/s |
| Developed by | Blu-ray Disc Association |
| Usage | Data storage, High-definition video High-definition audio and PlayStation 3 games |
In 1998, commercial HDTV sets began to appear in the consumer market; however, there was no commonly accepted, inexpensive way to record or play HD content. In fact, there was no medium with the storage required to accommodate HD codecs, except JVC's Digital VHS and Sony's HDCAM.[6] Nevertheless, it was well known that using lasers with shorter wavelengths would enable optical storage with higher density. When Shuji Nakamura invented practical blue laser diodes, it was a sensation, although a lengthy patent lawsuit delayed commercial introduction.[7]
Origins
Philips and Sony started two projects applying the new diodes: UDO (Ultra Density Optical) and DVR Blue (together with Pioneer), a format of rewritable discs which would eventually become Blu-ray Disc (more specifically, BD-RE).[8] The core technologies of the formats are essentially similar.
The first DVR Blue prototypes were unveiled at the CEATEC exhibition in October 2000.[9] Because the Blu-ray Disc standard places the data recording layer close to the surface of the disc, early discs were susceptible to contamination and scratches and had to be enclosed in plastic cartridges for protection. In February 2002, the project was officially announced as Blu-ray,[10] and the Blu-ray Disc Association was founded by the nine initial members.
The first consumer devices were in stores on April 10, 2003. This device was the Sony BDZ-S77; a BD-RE recorder that was made available only in Japan. The recommended price was US$3800;[11] however, there was no standard for pre-recorded video and no movies were released for this player. The Blu-ray Disc standard was still years away as a newer, more secure DRM system was needed before Hollywood studios would accept it, not wanting to repeat the failure of the Content Scramble System used on DVDs.
Blu-ray Disc format finalized
The Blu-ray Disc physical specifications were finished in 2004.[12] In January 2005, TDK announced that they had developed a hard coating polymer for Blu-ray Discs.[13] The cartridges, no longer necessary, were scrapped. The BD-ROM specifications were finalized in early 2006.[14] AACS LA, a consortium founded in 2004,[15] had been developing the DRM platform that could be used to securely distribute movies to consumers. However, the final AACS standard was delayed,[16] and then delayed again when an important member of the Blu-ray Disc group voiced concerns.[17] At the request of the initial hardware manufacturers, including Toshiba, Pioneer and Samsung, an interim standard was published which did not include some features, like managed copy.[18]
Launch and sales developments
The first BD-ROM players were shipped in the middle of June 2006, though HD DVD players beat them in the race to the market by a few months.[19][20]
The first Blu-ray Disc titles were released on June 20, 2006. The earliest releases used MPEG-2 video compression, the same method used on DVDs. The first releases using the newer VC-1 and AVC codecs were introduced in September 2006.[21] The first movies using dual layer discs (50 GB) were introduced in October 2006.[22] The first audio-only release was made in March 2008.[23]
The first mass-market Blu-ray Disc rewritable drive for the PC was the BWU-100A, released by Sony on July 18, 2006. It recorded both single and dual layer BD-R as well as BD-RE discs and had a suggested retail price of US$699.
Competition from HD DVD
The DVD Forum (which was chaired by Toshiba) was deeply split over whether to develop the more expensive blue laser technology or not. In March 2002, the forum voted to approve a proposal endorsed by Warner Bros. and other motion picture studios that involved compressing HD content onto dual-layer DVD-9 discs.[24][25] In spite of this decision, however, the DVD Forum's Steering Committee announced in April that it was pursuing its own blue-laser high-definition solution. In August, Toshiba and NEC announced their competing standard Advanced Optical Disc.[26] It was finally adopted by the DVD Forum and renamed HD DVD the next year,[27] after being voted down twice by Blu-ray Disc Association members, prompting the U.S. Department of Justice to make preliminary investigations into the situation.[28][29]
HD DVD had a head start in the high definition video market and Blu-ray Disc sales were slow at first. The first Blu-ray Disc player was perceived as expensive and buggy, and there were few titles available.[30] This changed when PlayStation 3 launched, since every PS3 unit also functioned as a Blu-ray Disc player. At CES 2007 Warner proposed Total Hi Def which was a hybrid disc containing Blu-ray on one side and HD DVD on the other but it was never released. By January 2007, Blu-ray discs had outsold HD DVDs,[31] and during the first three quarters of 2007, BD outsold HD DVDs by about two to one. Finally, by February 2008, Toshiba announced it was pulling its support for the HD DVD format, leaving Blu-ray as the victor in the video wars.[32]
Some analysts believe that Sony's PlayStation 3 video game console played an important role in the format war, believing it acted as a catalyst for Blu-ray Disc, as the PlayStation 3 used a Blu-ray Disc drive as its primary information storage medium.[33] They also credited Sony's more thorough and influential marketing campaign.[34] More recently Twentieth Century Fox have cited Blu-ray Disc's adoption of the BD+ anti-copying system as the reason they supported Blu-ray Disc over HD DVD.[35]
End of the format war
In January 2008, a day before CES 2008, Warner Brothers, the only major studio still releasing movies in both HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc format, announced it would release only in Blu-ray Disc after May 2008. This effectively included other studios which came under the Warner umbrella, such as New Line Cinema and HBO, though in Europe HBO distribution partner the BBC announced it would, while keeping an eye on market forces, continue to release product on both formats. This led to a chain reaction in the industry, including major U.S. retailers such as Best Buy, Wal-Mart, and Circuit City dropping HD DVD in their stores. A major European retailer, Woolworths, dropped HD DVD from its inventory. Netflix and Blockbuster, major DVD rental companies, said they would no longer carry HD DVDs. Following these new developments, on February 19, 2008, Toshiba announced it would be ending production of HD DVD devices,[36] allowing Blu-ray Disc to become the industry standard for high-density optical disks. Universal Studios, the sole major movie studio to back HD DVD since inception, shortly after Toshiba's announcement, said "while Universal values the close partnership we have shared with Toshiba, it is time to turn our focus to releasing new and catalog titles on Blu-ray Disc."[37] Paramount Studios, which started releasing movies only in HD DVD format during late 2007, also said it would start releasing in Blu-ray Disc. Both studios announced initial Blu-ray lineups in May 2008. With this, all major Hollywood studios now support Blu-ray.[38]
Former HD DVD supporter Microsoft had stated that they were not pursuing a Blu-ray Disc drive for the Xbox 360, and would instead focus on their digital downloads from the Xbox Live Marketplace.[39]
Blu-ray Disc began making serious strides as soon as the format war ended. Nielsen VideoScan sales numbers showed that with some titles, such as 20th Century Fox's "Hitman," up to 14% of total disc sales were from Blu-ray, although the average for the first half of the year was around 5%. Shortly after the format war ended, a study by The NPD Group found that awareness of Blu-ray Disc had reached 60% of U.S. households, with most experts predicting the business will take off in a significant fashion in the fourth quarter of 2008, when BD Live software and players--which offer a variety of Web-enabled features, from downloadable trailers to chat and instant-messaging functions--start hitting the market.
According to Singulus Technologies AG, Blu-ray is being adopted faster than the DVD format was at the same period of its development. This conclusion was made due to the fact that Singulus Technologies has received orders for 21 Blu-ray dual-layer machines during the first quarter of 2008, while 17 DVD machines of this type were made in the same period in 1997.[40]
Technical specifications
| Physical size | Single layer capacity | Dual layer capacity | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12 cm, single sided | 25 GB (23.28 GiB) | 50 GB (46.56 GiB) | Standard disc size |
| 8 cm, single sided | 7.8 GB (7.26 GiB) | 15.6 GB (14.53 GiB) | Mini disc size |
Laser and optics
Blu-ray Disc uses a "blue" (technically violet) laser operating at a wavelength of 405 nm to read and write data. Conventional DVDs and CDs use red and near infrared lasers at 650 nm and 780 nm respectively.
The blue-violet laser's shorter wavelength makes it possible to store more information on a 12 cm CD/DVD sized disc. The minimum "spot size" on which a laser can be focused is limited by diffraction, and depends on the wavelength of the light and the numerical aperture of the lens used to focus it. By decreasing the wavelength, increasing the numerical aperture from 0.60 to 0.85 and making the cover layer thinner to avoid unwanted optical effects, the laser beam can be focused to a smaller spot. This allows more information to be stored in the same area. For Blu-ray Disc, the spot size is 580 nm.[41] In addition to the optical improvements, Blu-ray Discs feature improvements in data encoding that further increase the capacity. (See Compact disc for information on optical discs' physical structure.)
Hard-coating technology
Because the Blu-ray Disc data layer is closer to the surface of the disc, compared to the DVD standard, it was at first more vulnerable to scratches. The first discs were housed in cartridges for protection.
TDK was the first company to develop a working scratch protection coating for Blu-ray Discs. It was named Durabis. In addition, both Sony and Panasonic's replication methods include proprietary hard-coat technologies. Sony's rewritable media are spin-coated with a scratch-resistant and antistatic coating. Verbatim's recordable and rewritable Blu-ray Disc discs use their own proprietary hard-coat technology called ScratchGuard.
Recording speed
| Drive speed | Data rate | Write time for Blu-ray Disc (minutes) | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mbit/s | MB/s | Single Layer | Dual Layer | |
| 1× | 36 | 4.5 | 90 | 180 |
| 2× | 72 | 9 | 45 | 90 |
| 4× | 144 | 18 | 23 | 45 |
| 6× | 216 | 27 | 15 | 30 |
| 8×* | 288 | 36 | 12 | 23 |
| 12×** | 432 | 54 | 8 | 15 |
* On August 8, 2008, Japanese Buffalo announced that it will ship the first 8x Blu-ray burners in Japan starting from September 2008.
** Theoretical
Software standards
Codecs
Codecs are compression schemes that store audio and video more efficiently, either giving longer play time or higher quality per megabyte. There are both lossy and lossless compression techniques.
The BD-ROM specification mandates certain codec compatibilities for both hardware decoders (players) and the movie-software (content). For video, all players are required to support MPEG-2, H.264/AVC, and SMPTE VC-1. MPEG-2 is the codec used on regular DVDs, which allows backwards compatibility. H.264/AVC was developed by MPEG and VCEG as a modern successor of H.263 . VC-1 is another MPEG-4 derivative codec mostly developed by Microsoft. BD-ROM titles with video must store video using one of the three mandatory codecs. Multiple codecs on a single title are allowed.
The choice of codecs affects the producer's licensing/royalty costs, as well as the title's maximum runtime, due to differences in compression efficiency. Discs encoded in MPEG-2 video typically limit content producers to around two hours of high-definition content on a single-layer (25 GB) BD-ROM. The more advanced video codecs (VC-1 and H.264) typically achieve a video runtime twice that of MPEG-2, with comparable quality.
MPEG-2 was used by many studios, including Paramount Pictures (which initially used the VC-1 codec for HD DVD releases) for the first series of Blu-ray discs that were launched throughout 2006. Modern releases are now often encoded in either H.264/AVC or VC-1, allowing film studios to place all content on one disc, reducing costs and improving ease of use. Using these codecs will also free many GB of space for storage of bonus content in HD (1080i/p) as opposed to the SD (480i/p) typically used for most titles. Some studios (such as Warner Bros.) have released bonus content on discs encoded in a different codec than the main feature title; for example the Blu-ray release of Superman Returns uses VC-1 for the feature film and MPEG-2 for bonus content (presumably because it is simply ported from the DVD release).
For audio, BD-ROM players are required to support Dolby Digital, DTS, and linear PCM. Players may optionally support Dolby Digital Plus and DTS-HD High Resolution Audio, as well as lossless formats Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio. BD-ROM titles must use one of the mandatory schemes for the primary soundtrack. A secondary audiotrack, if present, may use any of the mandatory or optional codecs.[42]
For users recording digital television programming, the recordable Blu-ray Disc standard's initial data rate of 36 Mbit/s is more than adequate to record high-definition broadcasts from any source (IPTV, cable/satellite, or terrestrial). Blu-ray movies have a maximum data transfer rate of 54 Mbit/s, a maximum AV bitrate of 48 Mbit/s (for both audio and video data), and a maximum video bitrate of 40 Mbit/s. This compares to HD DVD movies which have a maximum data transfer rate of 36 Mbit/s, a maximum AV bitrate of 30.24 Mbit/s, and a maximum video bitrate of 29.4 Mbit/s.[43]
Java software support
At the 2005 JavaOne trade show, it was announced that Sun Microsystems' Java cross-platform software environment would be included in all Blu-ray Disc players as a mandatory part of the standard. Java is used to implement interactive menus on Blu-ray Discs, as opposed to the method used on DVD video discs, which uses pre-rendered MPEG segments and selectable subtitle pictures, which is considerably more primitive and less seamless. Java creator James Gosling, at the conference, suggested that the inclusion of a Java Virtual Machine as well as network connectivity in some BD devices will allow updates to Blu-ray Discs via the Internet, adding content such as additional subtitle languages and promotional features that are not included on the disc at pressing time. This Java Version is called BD-J and is a subset of the Globally Executable MHP (GEM) standard. GEM is the world-wide version of the Multimedia Home Platform standard.
Region codes
A: East Asia (except Mainland China and Mongolia), Southeast Asia, North America, South America and their dependencies. B: Africa, Southwest Asia, Europe (except Russia and Kazakhstan), Oceania and their dependencies. C: Central Asia, East Asia (Mainland China and Mongolia only), South Asia, Europe (Russia and Kazakhstan only) and their dependencies.
Blu-ray Discs may be encoded with a region code, intended to restrict the area of the world in which they can be played, similar in principle to the DVD region codes, although the used geographical regions differ. Blu-ray Disc players sold in a certain region may only play discs encoded for that region. The purpose of this system is to allow motion picture studios to control the various aspects of a release (including content, date, and in particular price) according to the region. Discs may also be produced without region coding, so they can be played on all devices. The countries of the major Blu-ray manufacturers (Japan, Korea, Malaysia) are in the same region as North America. As of early 2008, about two-thirds of all released discs were region-free.[45]
Major studios have different region coding policies. Paramount Pictures and Universal Studios have released all of their titles region free.[46][47] Sony Pictures and Warner Bros have released most of their titles region free, but titles released by Warner's New Line division are region-coded.[48][49] Lionsgate and Walt Disney Pictures have released a mix of titles that were region free and region coded.[50][51] 20th Century Fox has released all but one of their titles region coded.[52]
However, since the demise of the HD-DVD format which did not support Region Coding, the majority of Blu-ray releases are now region coded.
In the Blu-ray region coding system, the United States is placed in region A while regions B and C are used for countries which can experience localization delays before U.S. titles are officially released. The opposite, though, is sometimes true and a few new titles such as Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Running Scared were released in certain European countries before the U.S. release.[53] In response to the DVD region system, multi-region and region-free DVD players became dominant in certai
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