AMD Athland – Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia

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Athlon It is a series of X86-64 microprocessors designed by AMD for personal computers presented in 1999.

The original Athlon, Athlon Classic , was the first X86 processor of seventh generation and initially maintained its performance leadership over Intel microprocessors. AMD has continued using Athlon name for its eighth A andlon generation processors.

Núcleo Classic [ To edit ]

The Athlon processor was launched on August 21, 1999. The first core of Athlon, known as “K7” (in tribute to its predecessor, the K6), was initially available in versions of 500 to 650 MHz, but Then it reached speeds of up to 1 GHz, being the first processor to break the GHz barrier. The processor is compatible with the X86 architecture and must be connected in base plates with slot A, which are mechanically compatible, but not electrically, with the slot Intel 1.

Internally Athlon is a redesign of its predecessor, which was substantially improved by the floating coma system (now there are 3 floating coma units that can work simultaneously) and the first -level cache memory (L1) to 128 kib (64 kib for data and 64 kib for instructions). It also includes 512 kib of second level cache (L2) external to the integrated processor circuit and usually running at half speed of it (in the most frequency models the cache worked at 2/5 [at 750 , 800 and 850 MHz] or 1/3 [in the 900, 950 and 1000 MHz] of the processor’s frequency). The communication bus is compatible with the EV6 protocol used in the DEC 21264 alpha processors, operating at a frequency of 100 MHz DDR ( Dual Data Rate , 200 MHz effective).

The result was the most powerful X86 processor. Athlon Classic was marketed until January 2002.

In economic terms Athlon Classic It was a success, not only for its own merits and its low price compared to competition, but also for Intel production problems.

Thunderbird nucleo [ To edit ]

The processor Athlon With nucleus Thunderbird appeared on the market on June 5, 2000, such as the evolution of the Athlon Classic . Like its predecessor, it is also based on architecture X86 and uses the EV6 bus. The watch speed range ranges from 650 MHz to 1.4 GHz. Regarding Athlon Classic, Athlon Thunderbird changed the slot to the socket A, smaller, however, a small series of Thunderbird was marketed in slot format TO.

All Athlon Thunderbird integrate 128 kib of first level cache (L1) (64 kib of data and 64 kib for instructions) and 256 kib of second level cache (L2) on-die, working at the same frequency of the nucleus. The manufacturing process used for all these microprocessors is 0.18µ (firstly manufactured with aluminum interconnections and then, in those of 1 GHz or more, of copper) and the size of the encapsulated is 117 mm².

There are two versions of Thunderbird depending on the frequency of bus they use. The first Athlon Thunderbird They used a 100MHz DDR (200 MHz effective) bus, as well as Athlon Classic . In the first four -month period of 2001 new versions appeared, called Athlon-C , which endured a 133 MHz DDR bus (266 MHz effective).

He Athlon Thunderbird It consolidated AMD as the second largest microprocessor manufacturing company, since thanks to its excellent performance (always surpassing Pentium III and the first Pentium 4 of Intel at the same clock speed) and low price, they made it very popular both between The understood as in the initiates in the computer science.

When Intel took the Pentium 4 to 1.7 GHz in April 2001 it was seen that Athlon Thunderbird was not at his level. It was also not practical for overclocking, then to continue being at the head in terms of the performance of the X86 processors, AMD had to design a new nucleus,
That’s why he took out the Athlon XP.

Palomino nucleus [ To edit ]

AMD launched the third great review of ATHLON, known as “Palomino”, on May 15, 2001. The main changes compared to the previous nucleus were performance improvements that do 10% faster than a Athlon Thunderbird at the same watch speed. Its watch speed was between 1.3 and 1.7 GHz. In addition the Palomino nucleus was the first to include the intel SSE instructions set, in addition to the 3Dnow! AMD. The Palomino nucleus still had problems with heat dissipation, which made it heat too much. Among the improvements of the Palomino with respect to Thunderbird we can mention the pre -recruitment of hardware data, known in English as Prefetch, and the increase in TLB tickets, from 24 to 32.

Due to the performance improvements at the same clock speed compared to the previous nuclei, the Athlon XP They were marketed not by their clock speed, but through an index of “relative benefits” known as PR . This index indicates the equivalent watch speed of a hypothetical “Athlon Thunderbird” with the same performance as an “Athlon XP”. For example, the “Athlon XP” 1800+ really works at 1.53 GHz, but indicates that it has a yield equivalent to a hypothetical “Athlon Thunderbird” to 1.8 GHz.
Among the enthusiasts, the idea that the “PR” referred to a performance comparison with Intel’s Pentium 4 Pentium 4, but this was never confirmed by AMD.

Núcleo Thoroughbred [ To edit ]

The fourth generation core of the Athlon, the Thoroughbred , commonly referred to as “Thoroughbred-A” was launched on June 10, 2002 at an initial speed of 1.80 GHz (2200 with the relative performance system). Due to stability problems, no superior model with this nucleus appeared, although the lower models quickly passed to the Thoroughborn nucleus, there are even 1700+ with Thoroughbred nucleus

The “Thoroughbred” nucleus was manufactured with a 0.13 µm process, improving the 0.18 µm of the “Palomino” nucleus manufacturing process. Initially, apart from the improvement of the manufacturing process, the Thoroughbred and Palomino nuclei are practically identical.

Subsequently, AMD created a review of the nucleus Thoroughbred , called “Thoroughbred-B” that slightly increased the size of the core and added one more layer, which solved the problems of heat dissipation inherited from the nucleus Thunderbird and enabled greater frequencies (it reached relative benefits of 2600+). Again, the lower models became manufactured with this nucleus.

The Core “Thoroughbred-B” reached the 2133 MHz, an Athlon XP 2600+ with 133 MHz bus (although in reality almost all 2600+ are 2083 MHz with 166 MHz of bus, or already with a barton nucleus (166 MHz Bus and 1917 MHz)

Famous were the “black paws” with stepping (processor code) Juihb DLT3C, which were 1700+ that were able to obtain an overclock (frequency increase) of 1 GHz in some cases.

Núcleo Barton [ To edit ]

The fifth generation Athlon nucleus, called Barton , it worked at a PR index between 2600+–1917 MHz with 166 MHz bus– and 3200+ –2200 MHz with 200 200-. Barton existed with lower PR, but they were low consumption processors designed for laptop. The Athlon XP Mobile 2500+ (1833 MHz) was famous in the world of overclocking because it allowed to reach high frequencies.

The nucleus Barton had as main characteristic regarding Thoroughbred-B Including a new second level cache (L2) of 512 kib instead of the 256 kib of the Thoroughbred. AMD also increased the frequency of the 133 MHz (266 troops per DDR) to 166 MHz (333 MHz effective) and subsequently up to 200 MHz (400 MHz effective).

With the launch of the Athlon XP with Barton nucleus, AMD again indicated that its processors were the fastest X86 in the market, but some market performance tests did not indicate this. This caused a stir to know that some of these tests, such as performance tests BAPCo , were designed by Intel engineers.

Núcleo Thorton [ To edit ]

The “Thorton” nucleus is a variant of “Barton”, identical to this but with half of the second level cache (L2) disabled.

Mobile Athlon XP [ To edit ]

Los Mobile Athlon XP ( Athlon XP-M ) They are functionally identical to the Athlon XP, but they work with smaller voltages. They also have PowerNow! Technology that reduces the speed of processor’s operation when it has little workload, to further reduce its consumption.

The Athlon XP-M They use the Socket 754 standard. They are usually used in laptops.

The successor of the Athlon and Athlon XP (of seventh generation) is the Athlon 64 .

References [ To edit ]