Enthusiasts love to know which “core” their processor is based on. “Core” is the silicon chip version used inside the CPU. Even in some ads you may find a reference to which core the CPU uses. To the regular user the core reference looks like Greek, so we decided to post a quick guide to all Athlon 64 cores released to date.

Core	Socket	L2 Cache	Manufacturing Process	SSE3 Instructions	Note
ClawHammer	Socket 754 or 939	1 MB	130 nm	No
NewCastle	Socket 754 or 939	512 KB	130 nm	No
Winchester	Socket 939	512 KB	90 nm	No
Venice	Socket 939	512 KB	90 nm	Yes	Enhanced Memory Controller
San Diego	Socket 939	1 MB	90 nm	Yes	Enhanced Memory Controller

SSE3 instructions were first launched with Pentium 4 processor and are MMX-like instructions, created to accelerate multimedia applications.

About the memory controller, what happens is that Athlon 64 processors have a limitation. When four DDR400/PC3200 memory modules are installed on the system, they are accessed at 333 MHz and not at 400 MHz. This was corrected on Venice and San Diego cores: on CPUs based on these cores the processor accesses the four memory modules at 400 MHz.

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