November 19, 2007 (790FX, 790X, 770) March 4, 2008 (780G, 740G) April 28, 2008 (780V)[1] June 4, 2008 (M780G) August 6, 2008 (790GX) October 26, 2008 (780E) April 26, 2010 (785E)
TheAMD 700 chipset series (also called asAMD 7-Series Chipsets) is a set of chipsets designed byATI forAMDPhenom processors to be sold under the AMD brand. Several members were launched in the end of 2007 and the first half of 2008, others launched throughout the rest of 2008.
The existence of the chipsets was proven in October 2006 through two hardware websites in Chile[2] and Spain[3] which posted the leaked slides of an ATI internal event, "ATI chipset update". In the slides, ATI has shown a series of RD700 series chipset logics codenamedRD790,RX790,RS780 andRS740 respectively. ASB700southbridge was also mentioned in the event. The 790X (codenameRD780) chipset was spotted in Computex 2007, exhibited byASUS. TheRS780D was first reported by HKEPC[4] while theRX780H was first seen on ECS internal presentations.[5]
After the acquisition of ATI Technologies, AMD started to participate in the development of the chipset series. And as a result, the first performance and enthusiast segment chipsets products under the AMD brand, the 790FX, 790X and 770 chipsets were launched on November 19, 2007 as part of theSpider codenamed desktop performance platform. The 780 chipset series, first launched inChina on January 23, 2008, and released worldwide on March 5, 2008 duringCeBIT 2008,[6] mobile chipsets (M740G, M780G and M780T chipsets) were released on June 4, 2008 duringComputex 2008 as part of thePuma mobile platform and the 790GX chipset was released on August 6, 2008, while some other members released at a later date in 2008. The 785G was announced on August 4, 2009.
Four physical PCIe 2.0 x16 slots @ x8 or two physical PCIe 2.0 x16 slots, one PCIe 2.0 x4 slot and two PCIe 2.0 x1 slots,[9] the chipset provides a total of 38 PCIe 2.0 lanes and 4 PCIe 1.1 forA-Link Express II solely in the Northbridge
Reference board codenamed "Wahoo"[10] for dual-processor system reference design board with three physical PCI-E x16 slots, and "HammerHead" for single-socket system reference design board with four physical PCI-E x16 slots, also notable was the reference boards includes twoATA ports and only fourSATA 3.0 Gbit/s ports (as being paired with SB600 southbridge).
Will pair withSB750southbridge with support up to six SATA ports and enhancedPhenom processors overclocking via ACC functionality, and will later supportSocket AM3 withDDR3 SDRAM support in the first quarter of 2009.
CodenamedRD780, final name revealed to be "AMD 790X chipset"[11]
Single AMD processor configuration
One physical PCIe 2.0 x16 slot or two physical PCIe 2.0 x16 slots @ x8, one PCIe 2.0 x4 slot and two PCIe 2.0 x1 slots, the chipset provides a total of 22 PCIe 2.0 lanes and 4 PCIe 1.1 for A-Link Express II solely in the Northbridge
CodenamedRS780D,[4] final name seen on internal AMD presentation[13]
Single AMD processor configuration
One physical PCIe 2.0 x16 slot or two physical PCIe 2.0 x16 slots @ x8, one PCIe 2.0 x4 slot and two PCIe 2.0 x1 slots, the chipset provides a total of 22 PCIe 2.0 lanes and 4 PCIe 1.1 for A-Link Express II solely in the Northbridge
One physical PCIe 2.0 x16 slot, one PCIe 2.0 x4 slot and two PCIe 2.0 x1 slots, the chipset provides a total of 22 PCIe 2.0 lanes and 4 PCIe 1.1 for A-Link Express II solely in the Northbridge
One physical PCIe 2.0 x16 slot or two physical PCIe 2.0 x16 slots @ x8, one PCIe 2.0 x4 slot and two PCIe 2.0 x1 slots, the chipset provides a total of 22 PCIe 2.0 lanes and 4 PCIe 1.1 for A-Link Express II solely in the Northbridge
One physical PCIe 2.0 x16 slot, one PCIe 2.0 x4 slot and two PCIe 2.0 x1 slots, the chipset provides a total of 22 PCIe 2.0 lanes and 4 PCIe 1.1 for A-Link Express II solely in the Northbridge
Mobile version (M780G, codenamedRS780M/M780V, codenamedRS780MC) demonstrated in May 2007,[23] and will be available during second or third quarter (Q2-Q3) 2008,[24] with the implementation ofPowerXpress technology, providing onePCI-E slot forAXIOM/MXM modules[25] andHyperFlash[26][27] support for thePuma platform
Mainstream hybrid graphics (DirectX 10 IGP) segment (780G), value and commercial DirectX 10 IGP segment (780V)
One physical PCIe 2.0 x16 slot or two physical PCIe 2.0 x16 slots @ x8, one PCIe 2.0 x4 slot and two PCIe 2.0 x1 slots, the chipset provides a total of 22 PCIe 2.0 lanes and 4 PCIe 1.1 for A-Link Express II solely in the Northbridge
CodenamedRX780,[28] final product name revealed byECS[29]
Single AMD processor configuration
One physical PCIe 2.0 x16 slot, one PCIe 2.0 x4 slot and two PCIe 2.0 x1 slots, the chipset provides a total of 22 PCIe 2.0 lanes and 4 PCIe 1.1 for A-Link Express II solely in the Northbridge
One physical PCIe 2.0 x16 slot and one PCIe 2.0 x4 slot, the chipset provides a total of 20 PCIe 2.0 lanes and 4 PCIe 1.1 for A-Link Express II solely in the Northbridge
One physical PCIe 1.1 x16 slot and one PCIe 1.1 x4 slot, the chipset provides a total of 20 PCIe 1.1 lanes and 4 PCIe 1.1 for A-Link Express II solely in the Northbridge
Besides the use ofSB600 southbridge for earlier releases of several members in late 2007, all of the above chipsets can also utilize newersouthbridge designs, the SB700, SB710 and the SB750 southbridges. Future server chipsets will also utilize the server version (SB700S/SB750S) of the southbridges. Features provided by the southbridge are listed as follows:
This article needs to beupdated. Please help update this section to reflect recent events or newly available information.(November 2010)
TheATI CrossFire X technology supports multiple video cards to be connected to enhance the visual display and 3D rendering capabilities of the system, usingAFR mode and/or scissor mode. Alternatively, systems with multiple video card CrossFire X setup will support multipledisplay monitors up to eight.
For the AMD 790FX chipset, theCrossFire X technology allows up to 4 video cards to be connected, made possible as the chipset supports four physicalPCI-E x16 slots.[9] ThePCI-E lanes can be configured for 4 slots at x8 bandwidth or 2 slots at x16 bandwidth (16x-16x, 8x-8x-8x or 8x-8x-8x-8x CrossFire X setup). Reports indicate 2.6 times the performance with triple-card CrossFire than that of a single card,[36] and more than 3.3 times the performance increase for quad-card CrossFire.Gigabyte have revealed in a leaked product presentation that the four card CrossFire X setup does not require CrossFire connectors; the data will be exchanged among the PCI-E slots which is monitored and controlled by Catalyst drivers.
For the performance segment, CrossFire on the AMD 790X chipset has two physicalPCI-E x16 slots[9] with one operating at x8 bandwidth (dual-card 8x-8x CrossFire), supporting up to fourdisplay monitors.
Multi-graphics is also supported for the 790GX IGP chipset, named asHybrid CrossFire X.
Another feature is AMD OverDrive, an application designed to boost system performance through a list of items in real-time, without a system reboot, as listed below:
Real-time Overclocking:
Novice mode for users not familiar with system tuning, includes a slider of level 0 to 10 for easy system tuning
Advanced mode for more familiar enthusiasts to fine tune various system parameters including: Clock frequencies – independent clock frequencies for independent processor cores (Phenom processors only),PCI-E lanes, system bus frequency; Multipliers for each of the CPU cores andHyperTransport links (downward direction only except Black Edition processors); And voltages for CPU (VID and VDDC), CPUHyperTransport, DDR2 Memory (VDDQ and VTT),northbridge core (VCore) and NorthbridgePCI-E. Overclocking also applies to the IGP and the side-port memory since the release of version 2.1.4.
"Auto Clock" for automatic fine-tuning and overclocking
Memory fine-tuning – DDR2 Memory parameters
System monitoring:
System information
Simple mode –Windows Task Manager like CPU cores usage histogram, with CPU core clock Frequencies, CPU Multipliers, CPU core voltages (VCore), CPU Temperature; GPU details including GPU core frequency, video memory frequency; and system parameters including system bus frequency,southbridge frequency, PCI-E lanes frequency and memory frequency
Detailed mode – include all system information items presented in the simple mode, with the addition of CPU caches, CPU voltages, memory details including memory frequencies and SPD settings, HyperTransport frequency and link width
System Monitor
(Optional) System benchmark, resulting a value to reflect relative system performance, tests include: integer computation, floating-point computation, memory speed, cache speed
(Optional) Processor stability test, normally runs for one hour, can also be run for a minimum of 1 minute or a maximum of seven days, to identify whether the system becomes unstable for use after fine-tuning under full-loading condition. Tests include: integer (integer units) calculations and stack operations test for each processor core, floating-point (128-bit FPU) calculations test for each processor core, calculation test (Phenom processors only), MCA registers checking test
Maintenance/User-friendly functionalities:
Profile(s) saving and loading capabilities
Log records output
The application will support all members of the AMD 700 chipset series, including the 740 series chipsets which are aimed at value markets, and AMD processors includingPhenom andAthlon 64 family of processors, but due to architectural limitations, independent clock frequency settings for different processor cores (a feature implemented in theK10 microarchitecture) will not function on Athlon 64 family of processors (except forAthlon X2 7000 series which is based on K10).
The AutoXpress technology is a set of automatic system tuning features to enhance system performance, which were revealed by members of ChileHardware when investigating theBIOS for AMD 790FX, 790X and 770 chipsets.[37] AutoXpress will be available on AMD 790FX (codenamedRD790) chipset, with AMD 790X (codenamedRD780) and AMD 770 (codenamedRX780) chipsets implementing a subset of all the features. The AutoXpress technology is similar to theLinkBoost capability presented onNVIDIAnForce 500/600 chipsets.
The feature must be enabled via BIOS, options appeared in the BIOS includes ON/OFF/Custom, which choosing the "Custom" option will open up three further options, namely "CPU", "XpressRoute" and "MemBoost" with ON/OFF options, and ON as default. Details about the AutoXpress features are listed as follows:
Tweaking CAS latencies, as follows: tRC, tWR reduced by 2; tRRD, tWTR reduced by 1; tREF set to 7.8 μs from originally 3.9 μs; Enabling "Bank Swizzle Mode"; and Increase Bank Bypass Maximum to 7x
Advanced clock calibration (ACC) is a feature originally available for Phenom families of processors, particularly for Black Edition ones, to increase the overclocking potential of the CPU. ACC is supported by the SB710 and the SB750 southbridges, and available through BIOS settings on some motherboards and AMD OverDrive utility.[38]
It was later discovered that this functionality has the possibility of unlocking the supposedly disabled cores of some Phenom II X2/X3 processors. In normal cases, it is not possible to use or unlock any of those hidden cores because originally those cores were disabled: a technique called "chip harvesting" or "feature binning" used by AMD to sell parts with one or two defective cores which will cause system instability if not disabled.
The following are available through the Advanced Clock Calibration feature:
Auto or manual settings
Allow separate settings for each of the CPU cores
Allowed range: -12% to +12%
Possibility of unlocking AMD Phenom II X2/X3, AMD Athlon II X2/X3 and AMD Sempron locked cores / cache. (with BIOS support)
The principle of ACC is not publicly discussed by AMD but some third-party vendors, including ASUS (Core Unlocker)[39] and Biostar (BIO-unlocKING)[40] have had it for some time. Gigabyte has added this feature, called CPU Core Control, to many NB785/SB710 boards via BIOS update,[41] and will be including this feature (now called Auto Unlock) in all of their 800 Series boards with the SB850 chip.[42] On many of the boards, the feature is dependent on BIOS version. While NVIDIA also has a similar technology for itsnForce 780a motherboards, called NVCC (NVIDIA Clock Calibration) with very similar functionality.
One of the major focus of the chipset series is the energy efficiency of the chipsets. The need for energy-efficient chipsets have risen since chipsets starts including more features and morePCI Express lanes, to provide better system scalability by using PCI-E add-on cards.
But one issue is that chipset circuitries were usually made on a larger fabrication process nodes compared with the latest CPU process node, making recent chipsets consume more and more power than their predecessors. Recent examples including theIntel X38 chipset Northbridge (MCH), labelling 26.5WTDP with a maximum idle power of 12.3 W,[43] which results in the usage ofintegrated heat spreader (IHS) design over the chip to help heat spread evenly, withASUS even adding water cooling block directly on top of the heatsink of the X38 Northbridge as a part of the motherboard heatpipe system. Although the aforementioned figures may be small compared to the TDP figures of a performance CPU, there is a growing demand for computer systems with higher performance and lower power consumption. While Intel focuses only on the energy efficiency of its processors, NVIDIA'snForce 780i chipset requires an overall power consumption of 48 W with the northbridge, southbridge and the nForce 200 PCI-E bridge.[44]
In response to this, all discrete northbridges of the chipset series were designed on a65 nmCMOS process, manufactured byTSMC, aimed at lowering power consumptions of chipsets. According to internal testing and various reports, the Northbridge of the AMD 790FX chipset (RD790) runs at 3W when idle, and maximum 10 W under load,[36] nominal 8W power consumption, the northbridge was seen on reference design of the AMD 790FX chipset with single passive cooling heatsink instead of connecting toheat pipes which are frequently used on current performance motherboard offers,[44] the chipset on the whole (the combination of RD790 Northbridge andSB600 Southbridge) consumes nominally less than 15W.[45]
The integrated graphics northbridges were also benefited, as most of theIGP northbridges were made on 55 nm process manufactured by TSMC with the inclusion ofATI PowerPlay technology, allowing dynamically changing the core clock frequency to minimum 150 MHz.[13] The 780G Northbridge, sportingDirectX 10 support, consumes only 11.4 W on full load,[19] 0.94 watt when idle.[46] This is also smaller than the TDP figures of the Intel G35 chipset Northbridge at 28 W with the maximum idle power of 11 W.[47]
The ATI Hybrid Graphics technology applies to all or some of theintegrated graphics chipsets of this chipset series, technologies includingHybrid CrossFire X,SurroundView andPowerXpress. Reports confirmed that the 790GX IGP (codenamedRS780D) chipset will be able to handle dual video card and IGP as a CrossFire X setup.[4] Hybrid Graphics are only available with 24xx, 34xx, & 42xx model ATI graphics cards.
The southbridges also supporthybrid drives viaSATA or supported ATA ports, which is compliant with the requirements of theWindows ReadyDrive technology, which is basically a conventionalhard drive with an embedded NAND flash module.
TheHyperFlash, basically a NAND flash module on a card, originally planned as a device connected to the supportedIDE/ATA 66/100/133 channel, to speed up system performance[48] through theWindows ReadyBoost andWindows ReadyDrive functionality.
A HyperFlash module consists of two parts, the first part is a HyperFlash memory card which are flash memory chips on a small PCB (dimensions similar to aCanadian quarter 25¢, with diameter 23.88 mm, but rectangular in shape) with contacts similar toSO-DIMM modules. The other part is aflash controller on anATA connector, with similarlatches/socket ejectors as SO-DIMM sockets. The HyperFlash memory card is inserted into the flash controller and then directly plugged into the motherboard ATA connector. The memory chips used on the HyperFlash memory card will beSamsung'sOneNAND flash memory modules with maximum four-die configuration (four-die in a single package), running at 83 MHz frequency,[49] providing a bandwidth of 108 MB/s on a 16-bit bus width. Since the flash controller is designed to be compatible withATA pin-out definitions (also to fit the ATA motherboard connector) and is designed byMolex, this allowsOEMs to produce their own brands of HyperFlash modules while at the same time providing maximum compatibility between HyperFlash modules.
Three variants were reportedly available for HyperFlash modules, with capacity of 512 MiB, 1 GiB and 2 GiB respectively, with expectedDVT samples in November 2007 and mass-production expected in December 2007 (supported byBeta motherboard drivers) and official motherboard driver support planned in February 2008.[50] However, it was reportedly cancelled.[51]
The RAIDXpert is a remote RAID configuration tool, for changing the RAID level of the RAID setup connected via SATA 3.0 Gbit/s ports (connected to SB600, excluding extra SATA 3.0 Gbit/s ports through additional SATA chip on some motherboard implementations), including RAID 0, RAID 1, and RAID 0+1.
Some of the members of the AMD 700 chipset series, specifically the 780 and 740 family of chipsets and the 790GX chipset, have integrated graphics onboard (IGP), as well as supporting hardware video playback acceleration at different levels. All IGP northbridges arepin-compatible to each other and even predecessors (690 series), to lower the product cost for each PCB redesign due to pin incompatibility and maximize the product lineup. These IGP features are listed below:
For the enterprise platform, the "Remote IT" technology (temporary name) was reported to be released by the end of 2007 or early 2008. The platform composed of an AMD 780V chipset with an SB700 southbridge, and chips from Broadcom, Realtek and Marvell.[53] It was reported to have incorporated the Broadcom BCM5761 managed NIC controller withIntelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) 1.5 manageability standard,[54] together withDASH 1.0 specification (DASH page onDMTF) support of the SB700 and SB750 southbridges, and reported support additional management and security technologies such as IDM (Intelligent Device Management) and TPM 1.2 (Trusted Platform Module).[53]
In a comparison against theGeForce 8200,Anandtech considered the 780G "a better balanced chipset offering improved casual gaming performance, equal video quality, similar power requirements, greater availability, and better pricing."[55] The 8200, however, was preferred as a single-purposeHTPC solution. Both chipsets were considered superior to Intel's G45/X4500HD, which was cited for a lack of driver quality and features, and a higher price.[55]
Low speed instability withHyperTransport version 3 capable processors. HT3 speeds 1.2 GHz up to 1.6 GHz should not be used, only 1.8 up to 2.2 GHz speeds are safe to be used. HT3 processors operating at 1.6 GHz (Phenom X3 8250e, Phenom X4 9100e and Phenom X4 9150e) will suffer from high retry count on the HyperTransport link which may result in hangs on revision A12 northbridges.
HPET operation withMSI causesLPCDMA corruption on devices using LPC DMA (floppy, parallel port, serial port in FIR mode) because MSI requests are misinterpreted as DMA cycles by the broken LPC controller[60]
USB freeze when multiple devices are connected through hub (related to AMD Product Advisory PA_SB700AK1)[61]
Erratic behaviour of theHPET when Spread Spectrum is enabled (related to AMD Product Advisory PA_SB700AG2)[62]
^Microsoft Support KB 982091: Stop error code 0x0000009F or Stop error code 0x000000FE on a Windows 7-based or Windows Vista-based computer that uses certain AMD USB EHCI host controllers
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