silly question - what does "ax" signify in Athlon64 model numbers ???

looking at Athlon64 prices
and the 3000+ and 3200+ seem to be in 2 versions

BOTH versions:
socket 754 AND 512Kb cache AND in AMD box

different manufacturer codes:

so, for example - for the 3000+

ADA3000BOX
ADA3000AXBOX

with the AX one around 10% dearer

silly question - what's the difference ???

wrote:
looking at Athlon64 prices
and the 3000+ and 3200+ seem to be in 2 versions

BOTH versions:
socket 754 AND 512Kb cache AND in AMD box

different manufacturer codes:

so, for example - for the 3000+

ADA3000BOX
ADA3000AXBOX

with the AX one around 10% dearer

silly question - what's the difference ???

The -AX is the Newcastle core. Just to make things fun, there are actually
*three* different A64 3000+ CPUs:
ADA3000AEP4AP
Older SH7-C0 stepping, Clawhammer core with half the L2 disabled
ADA3000AEP4AR
Newer SH7-CG stepping, Clawhammer core with half the L2 disabled
ADA3000AEP4AX
DH7-CG stepping, Newcastle core (which only has 512kb to start with)

All the CPUs are identical in terms of specifications (same amount of cache,
same speed, same vcore, etc), but it's thought that the Newcastle is very
slightly faster due to internal improvements (though noone seems
particularily sure yet). Likewise, some people report that the Newcastles
overclock better, but again it's hard to tell since I don't think there's
anyone who's done a careful everything-else-identical comparison of the two.

For the 3200+, there's also three versions:
ADA3200AEP5AP
Older SH7-C0 stepping, Clawhammer core with fill 1mb L2
ADA3200AEP5AR
Newer SH7-CG stepping, Clawhammer core with fill 1mb L2
ADA3200AEP4AX
DH7-CG stepping, Newcastle core (which only has 512kb to start with)

Now, these are not quite all identical. The Clawhammers have 1mb L2 and run
at 2GHz, whereas the Newcastle has 512kb and runs at 2.2GHz. Which is faster
depends on what you're using them for, but overall they are (theoretically)
about the same performance-wise. In this case, the Newcastle probably has a
bit less headroom than the clawhammer due to its higher clock, but being a
new core it's pretty hard to tell yet.

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Michael Brown
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