SUNNYVALE, Calif.--Advanced Micro Devices Inc. today launched a new Athlon microprocessor and chip set with special architectural features to perform multiprocessing applications in server and workstation systems.

The Athlon MP processor 1900+ contains what AMD calls a QuantiSpeed architecture and Smart MP technology to improve performance and reliability in multiprocessing servers and workstations. AMD said the new 32-bit processor and AMD-760 MPX chip set integrate "seamlessly into existing infrastructures" and provide stability and manageability for information technology managers.

The company said motherboards based on the AMD-760 MPX chip set improve high-speed peripheral connections. The initial multiprocessing motherboards are expected to be introduced by Abit, Asus, GigaByte, MSI and Tyan, said AMD.

The AMD-760 MPX chip set has been design as a high performance, two-way multiprocessor core logic solution for the Athlon MP processors, offering what AMD calls Multi-Processor eXtended (MPX) performance compared to its predecessor, the 760 MP series. The new 760 MPX chip set offers extended performance through a 66-MHz 64-bit/32-bit PCI bus and a peripheral bus controller that provides PCI-to-PCI bridging capability, AMD said.

The MPX set consists of two chips--the 762 system controller ("northbridge"), and the 768 peripheral bus controller ("southbridge"). The 760 MPX supports double data rate (DDR) memory. The new chip set up to two AMD Athlon MP processors with independent 266-MHz front side buses, as well as PC2100 DDR memory and AGP 4x graphics.

AMD said its Smart MP technology features dual point-to-point, high-speed 266-MHz system buses with error correcting code (ECC) support designed to provide up to 2.1gigabyte-per-second central processing of bus bandwidth in a dual-processor system. Smart MP technology also has an optimized Modified Owner Exclusive Shared Invalid (MOESI) cache coherency protocol that manages data and memory traffic in a multiprocessing environment. The patented QuantiSpeed architecture includes a full-speed cache with hardware data pre-fetch, a fully pipelined superscalar floating point engine, and a Level 2 cache Translation Look-aside Buffer (TLB).

AMD said it expects worldwide availability of the new 760 MPX chip set in the first quarter of 2002 and Athlon MP processor 1900+ to become available this month. The MP processor 1900+ is priced at $319 in 1,000-unit quantities. Pricing on the new MPX chip set were not released.