AMD Unleashes the Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition Quad-Core Processor

AMD has just announced the introduction of its newest flagship processor, the Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition CPU that features four computing cores and has a stock clock speed of 3.7GHz. The high operating frequency makes it the fastest quad-core CPU in the company's lineup.

The first reports about AMD's plans to introduce the Phenom II X4 980 BE arrived in mid-March, but the Sunnyvale-based company kept quiet and hasn't made anything official until today's launch.

Outside of the increased clock speed, the chip doesn't differ too much from AMD's other processors based on the Daneb architecture and it features the same 125W TDP as its lower clocked brothers.

This also means that the 980 BE will sport 512KB of L2 data cache per core, 6MB of shared Level 3 cache memory, an integrated dual-channel DDR2 and DDR3-1333MHz memory controller and HyperTransport 3.0 support.

Since the Phenom II X4 980 comes as a Black Edition part, the processor features an unlocked multiplier, which should enable it to reach higher overclocks.

Just like the rest of AMD's current processors, the 980 BE was also built using the 45-nanometer DSL SOI technology and is compatible with AM2+ and AM3 motherboards as well as with the upcoming AM3+ boards.

Until recently, the fastest CPU in AMD's arsenal was the Phenom II X4 975 BE that was launched at the beginning of January and comes clocked at 3.6GHz.

Apart from the Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition, the second and third quarters of 2011 will also mark the introduction of the Athlon II X3 460, Athlon II X4 650, Phenom II X4 850, Phenom II X2 570 Black Edition and the Athlon II X2 275 CPUs.

The Phenom II X4 980 BE should become available relatively soon and its MSRP has been set at $195 US. (via TechPowerUp)