Original URL: http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/05/03/amd_to_rebrand_high-end_athlons/
It's time to wave farewell to AMD's Athlon brand and welcome in its place... er... Phenom. According to online reports, that's what AMD is going to start calling its high-end desktop chips.
The idea is that the name implies phenomenal performance, we guess, but f'nom doesn't work for us - it's too easy to glance at and read it as fee-nom. We don't know what fee AMD paid for this nom, but we don't feel it got value for money.
According to the DailyTech story (http://www.dailytech.com/AMD+to+Drop+Athlon+Moniker+on+the+High+End/article7136.htm?www.reghardware.co.uk) that revealed the new name, AMD will be introducing the brand during the coming weeks as it prepares the ground for the introduction of its 'Agena' and 'Kuma' HyperTransport 3 processors in Q3.
Dual-core chips will ship as the Phenom X2 line, while quad-cores will be labelled Phenom X4.
Taking a leaf out of arch-rival Intel's book, AMD will also introduce a revised model numbering scheme that adds a power consumption rating to the performance indicator value its used before. The "energy efficient" (45W) versions of AMD's 65nm 'Brisbane' Athlon 64 X2 processor will be labelled BE-2300, BE-2350 and BE-2400, clocked at 1.9GHz, 2.1GHz and 2.3GHz, respectively, the site claims.
Their single-core Sempron equivalents, codenamed 'Sparta', will run from LE-1100 to LE-1300.
Hints that AMD was planning to revise its model number scheme first appeared (http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/12/21/amd_processor_nomenclature/) back in December 2006.
AMD's dual-core 'Kuma' specs listed? (27 August 2008)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/08/27/amd_dual_core_kuma_specs_listed/
AMD denies further Phenom delays (2 July 2007)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/07/02/amd_denies_phenom_delays/
AMD's Phenom to arrive in time for Christmas? (22 June 2007)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/06/22/amd_phenom_xmas/
AMD launches Phenom brand (14 May 2007)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/05/14/amd_launches_phenom/
AMD unveils ATI Radeon HD 2000 (14 May 2007)
http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2007/05/14/amd_graphics_card_launch/
AMD Phenom X2, X4, FX processor specs leak (4 May 2007)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/05/04/amd_phenom_details_leak/
Nvidia whups Intel in Q1 desktop graphics (2 May 2007)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/05/02/q1_graphics_stats/
AMD aids Dell tree-planting fund (25 April 2007)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/04/25/amd_aids_dell_tree_fund/
AMD swings to $611m loss (19 April 2007)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/04/19/amd_q1_2007_results/
AMD launches ATI RS690 chipset at long last (28 February 2007)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/02/28/amd_launches_690g_chipset/
AMD slashes Athlon prices by up to 45% (12 February 2007)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/02/12/amd_price_cuts_feb_07/
Nvidia preps sidekick for AMD's 'star' processors (9 February 2007)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/02/09/nvidia_readies_mcp72/
AMD maps out path to HT 3, DDR 3, DirectX 10 (15 December 2006)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/12/15/amd_desktop_roadmap/