AMD Athlon 64 X2 processor

AMD Athlon 64 X2 computer processor was introduced in 2005. It is AMD’s first dual core x-86 compatible processor designed for desktop computer. The multi-core revolution was started when Intel begins to introduce dual-core processor in their Pentium D and Pentium Extreme Edition CPUs.

Dual-core processor incorporates two processing cores in a single chip. This means two streams of data is processed at the same time and therefore increase the power of CPU computing.

One of the features of Athlon 64 X2 processor is that the processor cores communicate each other without going through the North Bridge as it used to be in earlier processors.

For your information I have compiled the most common features of Athlon 64 X2 processor.

General specification of AMD Athlon 64 X2 processor

• 64-bit wide data bus, means it can send and receive 64-bit (8-bytes) data to and from motherboard and system memory. Both 32-bit and 64-bit applications can run simultaneously.
• Clock speed ranges from 1.9GHz to 3.0GHz
• Up to 1GHz Hyper transport connection
• Support Multi-core technology (two processor cores)
• Bus speed, 800MHz and 1GHZ
• 512KB and 1MB L2 cache per core
• Integrated DDR memory controller
• Supports 64-bit DDR2 SDRAM memory
• L3 cache in X2 7000 series processor only
• AMD PowerNow!™ Technology (Cool’n’Quiet™ Technology) – a technology that enables a processor to use low power consumption.
• Built in with Enhanced Virus Protection capability
• Support Hyper Transport technology
• Support 3D Now instructions
• Compatible to current PC operating systems
• SSE3 Streaming SIMD Instructions (MMX)
• Some support Virtualization technology

Benefits of Athlon 64 X2 processor

- Running multiple programs at the same time (multitasking capability)

- Powerful for multithreaded applications – multithreaded software can be broken into parts of programs called threads and run each threads on each processor cores. Non-threaded applications won’t benefit from multi core technology as the second processor core will be left idle from computing.

- Recommended for multimedia applications (for creating high-definition video, photo editing and rendering applications). These applications demand more processing power and simultaneous running of programs.

- Serves gaming applications well

Conclusion

As we have discussed, AMD Athlon 64 X2 processor is AMD’s first K8 series dual-core CPU. With this processor anyone who demands processing power for multitasking and multithreaded applications will benefit a lot.