14 DAY TRIAL // AMD's K10 quad-core processors seem to have been followed by bad luck in each of the previous revisions. Some of them were fully-fledged disasters (such as the over-dissected TLB errata in the B1 and B2 steppings) that kept the quad-core powerhorses away form the retailers' shelves. The upcoming B3 revision finally brought the Barcelonas back to functionality and sent to hell the TLB bug. However, it seems good is not enough, and AMD is in a quest for perfection.
The B3 stepping is slated for release somewhere in the second quarter of the year, after a number of delays and fake rumors alleging that it is still crippled by design bugs. However, a bug-free silicon is not quite enough for AMD because of its limited overclocking potential.
That is, while the upcoming healthy Phenoms will be clocked at core frequencies of 2.2 - 2.6 GHz, Intel will unleash the 3.2 GHz behemoths embodied by the soon-to-be released QX9770 45-nanometer Intel Core 2 Extreme quads. To cut it short, Intel is one Gigahertz ahead of AMD, and this happens at stock core speeds.
Add some other 400 or even 500 MHz that can be squeezed out with some professional cooling solutions and you'll see that the picture is kind of sepia, if not fully black and white. On top of that, while Intel's QX9770 is an energy-efficient, low-heat byte devourer, AMD's K10 series is manufactured on a 65-nanometer process.
Rumor has it that AMD is secretly baking the B4 version of the silicon, that will include both the B3 bug fixes and some extra overclocking capacities. The B4 is expected to kick in during the second quarter, also, but it might directly replace the B3. This way, AMD could adopt Winamp's slogan: "so good that we've skipped a version", although this would be too sadistic to its customers. The B4 stepping will make an excellent starting point for the future Black Edition and Phenom FX series, that would allow them to overcome the 3.0 GHz barrier.
Still, one of the previous reports alleged that there will be no B4 revision ever, since the next silicon will be the Cx, based on 45-nanometer Shanghai cores. But again, can anyone of you remember when was the last time AMD kept its promise to the end?