AMD Bulldozer's Clock-Speeds May Be Higher than 3.50GHz.

At the International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) 2011 Advanced Micro Devices plans to reveal additional details about its code-named Bulldozer micro-architecture as well as implementations of forthcoming microprocessors on its base. Apparently, AMD's next-gen chips will be capable of working at over 3.50GHz, which is a quite high-speed, considering the fact that the central processing units (CPUs) will have up to eight cores.

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Bulldozer processor modules are designed to operate from 0.8V to 1.3V voltages at 3.50GHz+ clock-speed. It is unclear whether 3.50GHz is average clock-speed of the forthcoming Orochi processors or they will manage to work at significantly higher frequencies. Interestingly, but the level-three cache of Bulldozer may work at a clock-speed that is lower compared to the frequencies of CPU modules.

"This micro-architecture improves performance and frequency while reducing area and power over a previous AMD x86-64 CPU in the same process. The design reduces the number of gates/cycle relative to prior designs, achieving 3.5GHz+ operation," the claim by AMD reads.

The Bulldozer's 8MB L3 cache is composed of four independent 2MB sub-caches and features column-select aliasing to improve area efficiency, supply gating and floating bit lines to reduce leakage power, and centralized redundant row and column blocks to improve yield and testability. The cache operates above 2.40GHz at 1.1V. Potentially, this may be an indicator that Orochi will work asynchronously.