AMD Confirms Deneb Core Rumors

"CPU giant AMD has confirmed they used the Deneb core for some of their Athlon II processors."

Published: 15th September 2009 | Source: AMD | Author: Peter Stoba

AMD admit using Deneb core in other CPUs

An AMD Athlon II X4 CPU unlocked to feature 6MB of L3 Cache

AMD have confirmed the rumours, or should we say fact, that they were using Deneb cores for some of their Athlon II CPUs. The Deneb core is the basis of the popular Phenom II X4 CPUs, and once the L3 cache was disabled, it became the Athlon II X4 quad core processors we all know and love. The rumor was confirmed when some users on the internet used certain motherboard to unlock the 'hidden' L3 cache on the processor and convert it to a fully functioning Phenom II X4 CPU, for no extra cost at all.

These Athlon II CPUs were supposed to be based on the Propus core, but this faced a delay and for some reason AMD decided to use the crippled Deneb cores instead. This will now have a positive impact on the Athlon II pricing, as the Propus core is now ready and used in the Athlon II X4 6xxe series. The shrink from a 258mm die to the 169mm Propus die means prices will be even lower, although that means no more free upgrades as the stock of older Deneb based Athlons will be gone very soon.

Wether this was a genuine scheme or simply a marketing plan to draw attention to the already-cheap quad core CPUs is still unknown, but now we know it was done on purpose for one reason or another. Discuss in our Forums.

Most Recent Comments

15-09-2009, 21:13:15

PeterStoba

CPU giant AMD has confirmed they used the Deneb core for some of their Athlon II processors.

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16-09-2009, 10:45:47

Mul.

If anyone is interested in knowing what core their Athlon II X4 620 is before installing it:

The clue is in the first string of characters and the two character string that directly follows. If the first string contains an AC substring and the following string contains the same it's a Deneb core, however if it's "AD" it is a L3 cacheless Propus core.

E.g.-

CACZC AC 0933 DPMW <-- Deneb (L3 Cache Disabled)
CADZC AD 0933 DPMW <-- Propus (No L3 Cache)

Being able to unlock 6mb L3 cache is quite a bonus and combined with a 2.60GHz clockspeed and a £75 pricetag, it could be a bit of a bargain. :)

On a similar note, these are now on sale.
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/173368
http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=1065961
http://overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-258-AM