Closer Look: Barton Processor with 400MHz FSB

So, what does the new Athlon XP 3200+ look like? All in all there is nothing brand new about it: the same Barton core as by the predecessors rated as 3000+, 2800+ and 2500+. The newcomer boasts only two distinguishing features: slightly higher core frequency, which is now equal to 2.2GHz and faster processor bus, which has been speeded up to 400MHz. In other words, in its Athlon XP 3200+ AMD has finally introduced exactly the feature, which we have been expecting for so long. The EV6 processor bus used for AMD Athlon processors has now reached its top speed: its frequency has doubled since the beginning of its successful career from 200MHz to 400MHz.

It was exactly the bus frequency increase from 333MHz to 400MHz that allowed AMD to add another 200 points to the current processor rating at the same time increasing its core clock just slightly. Thus, Athlon XP 3000+ worked at the actual 2.167GHz, and the today’s Athlon XP 3200+ supports 2.2GHz. However, as you know AMD’s processor rating indicates CPU average performance, so from this viewpoint this increase in CPU rating is absolutely justified.

2.2GHz is the maximum frequency Barton based CPUs could reach

The fact that AMD decided to speed up the processor bus again can be explained by both: marketing and technological reasons. On the one hand, the company had to respond to Intel’s initiative, to Intel’s new processor with 800MHz bus, and also gave “green light” to using DDR400 SDRAM in synchronous mode. On the other hand, the company stated increasing the CPU performance without raising their actual clock frequency that much. Barton is probably having difficulty working at core clock frequencies over 2.2GHz. This fact is proven by AMD’s decision to give up Athlon XP (Barton) working at 2.25GHz core clock and 333MHz FSB, although they have planned it before.

As a result, the current top Athlon XP processor model rated as 3200+ features the following specifications:

• Model number: 3200+;
• Processor core: Barton;
• Cache size: 128KB L1, 512KB L2 make the total of 640KB cache memory;
• Processor interface: Socket A;
• Production technology: 0.13micron copper interconnect technology;
• Die size: 101sq.mm;
• Transistors: 54.3mln;
• Nominal Vcore: 1.65V;
• Maximum core temperature: 85^oC;
• Typical heat dissipation: 60.4W;
• Maximum heat dissipation: 76.8W.

Going into details about the specs of Athlon XP 3200+ we should point out two important things. First, the higher heat dissipation of the new processor. As you remember Athlon XP 3000+ dissipates the maximum of 74.3W, while the newcomer dissipates 3% more heat though its core frequency grew up by only 1.5%. This certainly sets new requirements to cooling solutions to be used with this CPU. However, there is nothing dramatic about 76.8W heat dissipation: the maximum heat dissipation of the recently launched Pentium 4 3.0GHz is much higher and reaches 100W.

No comments are necessary:
Ajigo MF035-032 cooler recommended for Athlon XP 3200+ (right)
next to the boxed cooler for Pentium 4 3.0GHz (left).