Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
K6-3 was significant because it enabled the K6 series to fully compete with the Intel Pentium III
processor family, although it did cause the processor to run hot, resulting in its discontinuation after a
relatively brief period.
The original K6 has 8.8 million transistors and is built on a 0.35-micron, five-layer process. The die
is 12.7mm on each side, or about 162 square mm. The K6-3 uses a 0.25-micron process and
incorporates 21.3 million transistors on a die only 10.9mm on each side, or about 118 square mm.
AMD K7 Processors
The Athlon, Duron, and Athlon XP are all members of AMD's K7 processor family, which
represented a clean break with AMD's previous plug compatibility with Intel processors. Instead,
AMD developed its own processor slot and socket design and became a serious rival to Intel in both
performance and price.
AMD Athlon
The Athlon is AMD's successor to the K6 series. It was designed as a new chip from the ground up
and does not interface via the Socket 7 or Super7 sockets like its previous chips. In the initial Athlon
versions, AMD used a cartridge design, called Slot A, almost exactly like that of the Intel Pentium II
and III (see
Figure 3.36
)
. This was because the original Athlons used 512KB of external L2 cache,
which was mounted on the processor cartridge board. The external cache ran at one-half core, two-
fifths core, or one-third core, depending on which speed processor you had.
Figure 3.36. AMD Athlon processor for Slot A (cartridge form factor).
In June 2000, AMD introduced a revised version of the Athlon (code-named Thunderbird) that
incorporates 256KB of L2 cache directly on the processor die. This on-die cache runs at full-core
speed and eliminates a bottleneck in the original Athlon systems. Along with the change to on-die L2
cache, the Athlon was also introduced in a version for AMD's own Socket A (Socket 462), which
replaced the Slot A cartridge version (see
Figure 3.37
).
