The Athlon 64 X2 is the first native dual-coredesktopcentral processing unit (CPU) designed by Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). It was designed from scratch as native dual-core by using an already multi-CPU enabled Athlon 64, joining it with another functional core on one die, and connecting both via a shared dual-channel memory controller/north bridge and additional control logic. The initial versions are based on the E stepping model of the Athlon 64 and, depending on the model, have either 512 or 1024 KB of L2 cache per core. The Athlon 64 X2 can decode instructions for Streaming SIMD Extensions 3 (SSE3), except those few specific to Intel's architecture. The first Athlon 64 X2 CPUs were released in May 2005, in the same month as Intel's first dual-core processor, the Pentium D.
In June 2007, AMD released low-voltage variants of their low-end 65 nmAthlon 64 X2, named "Athlon X2".[1] The Athlon X2 processors feature reduced thermal design power (TDP) of 45 Watt (W).[2] The name was also used for K10 based budget CPUs with two cores deactivated.
The primary benefit of dual-core processors (like the Athlon 64 X2) over single-core processors is their ability to process more softwarethreads at the same time. The ability of processors to execute multiple threads simultaneously is called thread-level parallelism (TLP). By placing two cores on the same die, the X2 effectively doubles the TLP over a single-core Athlon 64 of the same speed. The need for TLP processing ability depends on the situation to a great degree, and some situations benefit from it far more than others. Some programs are currently written for only one thread, and thus cannot use the processing power of a second core.
Programs often written with multiple threads and able to use two cores include many music and video encoding applications, and especially professional rendering programs. High TLP applications currently correspond to server and workstation situations more than the typical desktop. These applications can reach almost twice the performance of a single-core Athlon 64 of the same specifications. Multitasking also runs a sizable number of threads. Intense multitasking processes have sped up by considerably more than twice.[3] This is mostly due to the high overhead caused by constantly switching threads, and could potentially be improved by adjustments to operating systemscheduling code.
In the consumer segment of the market, the X2 improves on the performance of the original Athlon 64, especially for multi-threaded software.
Having two cores, the Athlon 64 X2 has an increased number of transistors. The 1 MB L2 cache 90 nm Athlon 64 X2 processor is 219 mm2 in size with 243 million transistors[4] whereas its 1 MB L2 cache 90 nmAthlon 64 counterpart is 103.1 mm2 and has 164 million transistors.[5] The 65 nm Athlon 64 X2 with only 512 KB L2 per Core reduced this to 118 mm2 with 221 million transistors compared to the 65 nm Athlon 64 with 77.2 mm2 and 122 million transistors. As a result, a larger area of silicon must be defect free. These size requirements necessitate a more complex fabrication process, which further adds to the production of fewer functional processors per single silicon wafer. This lower yield makes the X2 more expensive to produce than the single-core processor.
In the middle of June 2006 AMD stated that they would no longer make any non-FX Athlon 64 or Athlon 64 X2 models with 1 MB L2 caches.[6][failed verification] This led to only a small production number of the Socket-AM2 Athlon 64 X2 with 1 MB L2 cache per core, known as 4000+, 4400+, 4800+, and 5200+. The Athlon 64 X2 with 512 KB per core, known as 3800+, 4200+, 4600+, and 5000+, were produced in far greater numbers. The introduction of the F3 stepping then saw several models with 1 MB L2 cache per core as production refinements resulted in an increased yield.
AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ (ADA6000IAA6CZ, Windsor), having its heat spreader removed (decapping). The silicon die is soldered to the heat spreader, causing the CPU to be destroyed during removal.
'64' was omitted from the name of the Brisbane 'BE' series; the 64-bit marketing campaign initiated by AMD became insignificant once essentially all consumer CPUs became 64-bit processors.
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