SAN FRANCISCO -- Advanced Micro Devices Inc. today formally launched its most powerful PC processor series, called Athlon XP, and it announced support from Microsoft Corp., which has added features to its upcoming Windows XP operating system to take advantage of unique features in AMD's newest central processing units.
Along with the Athlon XP rollout in San Francisco, AMD announced an effort to de-emphasize the use of clock speeds as a key measure of PC processor performance. Instead of focusing on megahertz, AMD wants the PC industry and users to look at other benchmarks to measure the CPU performance in standard PC applications (see today's story).
AMD's new Athlon XP processors--formerly code-named "Palomino"--contains a new patented architecture, called QuantiSpeed, which delivers up to a 25% performance advantage vs. competitive processors in "real-world applications," according to the company. These applications include digital media, office productivity software, and three-dimensional (3-D) gaming, said AMD. The Athlon XP also contains AMD's 3DNow! Professional technology with 52 new CPU instructions for higher performance in 3-D multimedia applications, such as photo, video, and audio, said AMD.
The Athlon "XP" also contains feature to match up with Microsoft's Windows XP operating system, which will become available worldwide on Oct. 25.
"The upcoming Windows XP operating system has been tailored to take advantage of the unique capabilities of the AMD Athlon XP processor, resulting in a great end-user experience," said John Frederiksen, general manager of Microsoft's PC Experience operation. He added that AMD's initiative to set new PC processor benchmarks "will give consumers additional valuable information when making new PC purchase decisions."
AMD said it will abandon the traditional nomenclature for CPU model numbers to de-emphasize the role of clock frequencies in system performance. Instead of matching model numbers to megahertz speeds, AMD's Athlon XP is being introduced as 1800+, 1700+, 1600+ and 1500+ versions. (The Athlon XP 1800+ version is supposed to match up with Intel Corp.'s 1.8-GHz Pentium 4 processor, in terms of performance.)
The new XP processor features 384 kilobytes of on-chip cache memory. It is compatible with AMD's Socket A infrastructure and supports an advanced 266-MHz front-side bus. The new CPU is being fabricated with 0.18-micron copper CMOS processes at AMD's Fab 30 in Dresden, Germany.
AMD's Athlon XP 1800+, 1700+, 1600+ and 1500+ processors are priced at $252, $190, $160 and $130 each, respectively, in quantities of 1,000 units.
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