[grogi]

Athlon X2 5000+ Black Box
Once you go…
"The promise of AMD’s 65 nm SOI process was, well… promising. Considering what we had seen done with both the previous 130 nm and 90 nm processes, the tech community was expecting great things. Really great things. Things didn’t work out.

There were two issues with AMD’s 65 nm process when it was first released. The first was that it was not anywhere up to speed as people were expecting. The second problem was the primary product coming off of the line. The 65 nm version of the highly successful X2 processor was not the foil against Intel’s Core 2 line that many were expecting. It was slightly slower than the older 90 nm Rev. F series, and it was unable to clock much higher than the older chips. Those marketing points go right out the window.

All was not wrong with the 65 nm X2 though. While the design was slightly slower than the older version, it was significantly more power efficient. AMD rates the 65 nm X2 as a 65 watt product across the board, except in the case of the X2-BE products which are rated at 45 watts. The older X2s have seemingly been sitting pretty at 89 watts for ages. This little marketing point became the mantra for the company, as energy efficiency trumps all these days rather than performance at all costs. Just ask Al Gore.

Before diving into the Black Box, we should probably explore the reasons behind AMD’s “not so hot” introduction of their 65 nm products. "