AMD's upcoming 900-series motherboard chipsets, that the company plans to launch together with its Zamabezi FX processors based on the Bulldozer architecture, will feature an improved power management technology which should decrease the energy consumption of AMD's future CPUs.
Ever since the first details about AMD's 900-series chipsets emerged, many have wondered how these controllers are different than their 800-series counterparts, as most of their features were virtually identical.
This question became ever more important after it was uncovered that the desktop Bulldozer chips are pin compatible with the AM3 socket, some motherboard manufacturers even expressing their support for these CPUs in some of their current products, as long as a revised BIOS version was installed.
However, these questions can be now put to rest, as Nordic Hardware has uncovered one of the major features that the 900-series AMD chipsets bring to the table.
According to the publication, the Zambezi FX processors require a 900-series motherboard for activating the power gating features found inside the processor itself.
Unlike AMD's previous CPUs, the Bulldozer architecture uses a new version of the Turbo Core technology that can optimize the performance of the chip according to the tasks run, in order to improve its power efficiency.
Furthermore, AMD has also implemented a series of power-gates in the chips, which can shut off specific parts of the CPU when these aren't used, such as an inactive core.
This is the first time that this technology makes its way into AMD's processors, but it has been used by Intel since the days of the first Nehalem chips.
Outside of a power-gating capable processor, the technology also requires the motherboard to support certain specialized control circuits, which are only found in 900-series chipsets.
At this moment, we don't know jut how much of a difference this new technology will make in terms of power consumption, but it could prove to be quite an important selling point for AMD's upcoming chipsets.
The first Zambezi FX processors are expected to make their appearance at the beginning of June together with the AMD 990FX northbridge controller.
