So this article over at Anandtech got me to thinking...
http://anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3572&p=1
The Athlon II with 1mb L2 per core comes in at 117 mm^2. From the die shot, I'd estimate a 4 core variant would be ~185 mm^2. This would be substantially less than the Phenom II at 258mm^2, about 72%.
In Anand's review comparing the 3.1GHz Phenom II to the 3.0GHz Athlon II, the Athlon II certainly is performing better than 72% of the Phenom II even with its 100MHz clock disadvantage.
Looking at it another way, they could fit 5 Athlon II cores in a smaller die than the Phenom II or 6 cores in one a few mm^2 larger than the Phenom II.
I'm probably missing something... so what is it...
/boggle?
http://anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3572&p=1
The Athlon II with 1mb L2 per core comes in at 117 mm^2. From the die shot, I'd estimate a 4 core variant would be ~185 mm^2. This would be substantially less than the Phenom II at 258mm^2, about 72%.
In Anand's review comparing the 3.1GHz Phenom II to the 3.0GHz Athlon II, the Athlon II certainly is performing better than 72% of the Phenom II even with its 100MHz clock disadvantage.
Looking at it another way, they could fit 5 Athlon II cores in a smaller die than the Phenom II or 6 cores in one a few mm^2 larger than the Phenom II.
I'm probably missing something... so what is it...
/boggle?