What is the difference between AMD Phenom/Athlon processors?

[Dark]

I know that (correct me if I'm wrong) Sempron was AMD's "first generation," Athlon is AMD's "second generation" and Phenom is the newest "Third generation."I really don't know any major difference between them, could anyone explain? Is it the architecture?

 

[James-007]

>Sempron was AMD's "first generation," Athlon is AMD's "second generation" and Phenom is the newest "Third generation."They aren't generations. Just different product lines with differing target markets.The Duron and Sempron series were based on the Athlon architecture (way back in 2000) and they were low cost alternatives meant for basic usage and office computers.The Phenom duals and quads came next with a new architecture called the K8 series, which also brought about the server Opteron and a new desktop CPU called the Athlon 64, which now supported 64 bit OS's and had dual cores.Later in 2007, they ditched the "64" from the Athlon name and simply called it the Athlon x2 for simplicity. They also refreshed the original sempron series with the new K8 architecture and it continues to live on as a bottom feeder processor for budget systems.Then came K10, and thats the CPU's we have now, the current generation Athlon 2's and Phenom 2's that come in both dual, triple, quad and hex varieties. The Phenom 2 is the only one that has hex cores. Six core Athlon 2's are not being produced at this stage.Next year we will have a new platform and architecture called Bulldozer, the name of the CPU's have not been decided yet. Rumours are that it will work on current AM3 sockets, if not it will work on a socket called AM3+ or AM3 rev2.But it will come only in quad and hex core varieties and like some of the Intel Nehalem series, be able to render graphics on the CPU without the need for a graphics card.

 

[Kay23]

First off...you have it all wrong...sorry...but I have to start there...The Duron (Later Sempron) Processors are low budget processors, and tend to have a smaller Cache than the more powerful Athlon...Very Few Dual Core processors have been created with the Sempron name.Athlon and Athlon II Processors have a Larger L2 Cache than the Duron/Sempron processor and generally speaking are more powerful. Single and Dual Core processors are common under the "Athlon" name...while Athlon II's generally are "Phenom" processors that have been stripped of L3 Cache. No Athlon II processors have an L3 CacheThe Phenom Series is the series of AMD Processors to have the L3 Cache. While Phenom was Shortlived...the Phenom II is still very much alive in the market.To Really know where an AMD Processor fits generation wise you must know what KSeries it comes from. The newest processors are part of the K10 family. While some of the Older AMD Processors are found in the K5-K6 (That only takes you back to 1995)