The new Phenom processor family on B3 stepping includes four models: 9550, 9650, 9750 and 9850 Black Edition. AMD also officially announced their triple-core processors known as Toliman. At this time they will only be distributed among AMD OEM partners and will not get into retail soon.

The leading flagship processor is the Phenom X4 9850 BE runs at a 2.5 GHz clock frequency at a full 2.0 GHz HT 3.0 speed at a 1.2-1.3V voltage and 125W TDP.

Today's tested Phenom X4 9850 runs at 2.5 GHz. Runs with HyperTransport 3.0 and features a total 2MB L2 cache; 512KB per core.

Next to that, it can address 2MB L3 cache as buffer where it can also exchange data in-between the cores. So that gives the four cores a total of 4 MB of cache (that's excluding a little L1 cache). The die size of the CPU is 285 mm² and for whatever reason we always like to know .. the CPU has 450 million transistors, much less than I expected actually. The processors are manufactured in AMD's Dresden plant and make use of AMD's 65 nm SOI-fabrication.

Next to the new architecture we also notice a few new enhancements and instruction sets. 128-bit SSE per clock cycle, a new instruction set under SSE4A. The chips also come with an integrated dual-channel/128-bit DDR2 memory controller and support speeds up to the DDR2-1066 specification. The processor package remains unchanged, and features the 940-pin AM2+ design, which is fully backward-compatible with the AM2 socket.

Mind you that this "Black Edition" release, the newest Phenom X4 has an unlocked multiplier that is more interesting for overclocking.

As stated, that's not all what AMD is releasing though.

AMD also announces several other Phenom X4 and X3 processors, in a mixture of B3 and B2 cores. The Phenom X4 9750 runs at 2.4 GHz with a 1.8 GHz HT speed, and a TDP of 125W, while the Phenom X4 9550 replaces the Phenom 9500 at a 2.2 GHz core, 1.8 GHz HT, and a 95W TDP. But here is a chart that should get you a better overview of the assorted Phenom and Phenom X4/X3 models, using their clock/HT speeds, TDP, and pricing:

Socket AM2+
The new Phenom processors make use of socket AM2+, an improved socket design based on socket AM2. Luckily there's no added pin count. So a Phenom processors theoretically will work in an AM2 mainboard as well (BIOS update required). The difference however has to do with the integrated memory controller and voltage routing. Voltages for the cores and memory controllers can be set independently from each other on Socket AM2+, which in the end has everything to do with power consumption. With socket AM2+ you'll also be able to make use of DDR2-1066 MHz memory, while on socket AM2 you'll be limited towards 800 MHz. Last but not least the socket change was needed for HyperTransport bus 3.0. which supports speeds up-to 2.6 GHz.

Obviously we recommend you to use a Socket AM2+ based mainboard in combination with a Phenom processor to gain maximum performance out of it, as the AM2+ socket can also deliver more ampage to the processor. Also an interesting fact, future 45-nm AMD processors will work fine on this socket a well.

Power Consumption
We already touched the subject a little. The 9850 Phenom processors has a TDP (peak wattage) of 125W. Now that's by itself interesting as it's not far off from the power consumption of a single dual-core processor. Don't forget that we have four active & independent cores here. And that's also where the golden nugget is to be found. Each core can be clocked down independently if not utilized, saving heaps of current. There's also a new status called C1E (check in the BIOS). If the processors are temporarily inactive, they can pretty much put themselves in sleep-mode (clocking down). Hyper Transport will power down and a low-power stage is activated on the memory.