X-bit labs

Your Value 64 Bits: AMD Sempron 3400+ CPU Review (page 2)

Category: CPU

by Ilya Gavrichenkov

[ 08/29/2005 | 12:14 PM ]

AMD Sempron 3400+ in Detail

Before checking the new processor in tests, let us examine its characteristics and see how it differs from previous CPU models from AMD. Here’s the formal specification of this product:

As you can see, the Sempron family is moving ever closer to the Athlon 64 series. In fact, Athlon 64 processors only have a larger L2 cache but otherwise AMD’s value CPUs do not differ from them. Particularly, Semprons based on the E6 revision of the Palermo core not only support SSE3 instructions, the NX-bit and Cool’n’Quiet technology, but also boast support of the 64-bit AMD64 extensions. And this core may now also be used in junior models of the value series other than the new Sempron 3400+. Talking about similarities between the Sempron and Athlon 64 families, we shouldn’t forget, however, that senior Athlon 64 models work at higher frequencies and have a 1GHz HyperTransport bus and a dual-channel memory controller.

Like its predecessors, the new Sempron 3400+ is intended for use in Socket 754 systems. AMD makes it clear that systems with a single-channel memory controller will still exist as low-end solutions. Even though AMD has long been shipping Socket 939 Semprons to its OEM partners, these are not available on the retail market yet. This policy is quite understandable: Socket 754 mainboards are cheaper and thus suit better as a foundation for an inexpensive computer.

The Sempron 3400+ doesn’t differ much from the junior members of the family in its formal characteristics. For example, the Sempron 3400+ differs from the Sempron 3300+ in only one thing – it has a larger L2 cache (256 kilobyte). Yes, the new Sempron supports AMD64, but the new core may be used in the cheaper Semprons, too. Otherwise, the characteristics of these CPUs coincide, including electrical and thermal specs: the new processor dissipates up to 62 watts and consumes up to 40.6 amperes.

The diagnostic utility CPUZ has the following to say about the Sempron 3400+:

The screenshot shows that CPUZ correctly identifies AMD64 technology provided by the revision E6 Palermo core as well as support of SSE3 instructions which appeared earlier, in the E3 revision.

Note that other Sempron for Socket 754 models, with lower ratings, may have the same functionality. You can tell that a given Sempron is based on a core of the E6 revision and supports SSE3 and AMD64 by checking its marking. New low-end 64-bit processors have a marking that ends in the letters “BX”, like our sample of the Sempron 3400+.

Processors on the Palermo core of the E3 revision, i.e. without AMD64 technology, have a marking that ends in “BO”. This remark refers to models slower than the Sempron 3400+ since this model comes only on the new core and always supports the 64-bit extensions.