Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
2003 Intel releases the Pentium M, a processor designed specifically for mobile systems, offering
extremely low power consumption that results in dramatically increased battery life while still
offering relatively high performance.
2003 AMD releases the Athlon 64, the first x86-64 (64-bit) processor for PCs, which also includes
integrated memory controllers.
2003 The IEEE officially approves the 802.11g 54Mbps high-speed wireless networking standard.
2004 Intel introduces a version of the Pentium 4 codenamed Prescott, the first PC processor built on
90-nanometer technology.
2004 Intel introduces EM64T (Extended Memory 64 Technology), which is a 64-bit extension to
Intel's IA-32 architecture based on (and virtually identical to) the x86-64 (AMD64) technology
first released by AMD.
2005 Microsoft releases Windows XP x64 Edition, which supports processors with 64-bit AMD64
and EM64T extensions.
2005 The era of multicore PC processors begins as Intel introduces the Pentium D 8xx and Pentium
Extreme Edition 8xx dual-core processors. AMD soon follows with the dual-core Athlon 64 X2.
2006 Apple introduces the first Macintosh systems based on PC architecture, stating they are four
times faster than previous non-PC-based Macs.
2006 Intel introduces the Core 2 Extreme, the first quad-core processor for PCs.
2006 Microsoft releases the long-awaited Windows Vista to business users. The PC OEM and
consumer market releases would follow in early 2007.
2007 Intel releases the 3x series chipsets with support for DDR3 memory and PCI Express 2.0,
which doubles the available bandwidth.
2007 AMD releases the Phenom processors, the first quad-core processors for PCs with all four
cores on a single die.
2008 Intel releases the Core i-Series (Nehalem) processors, which are dual- or quad-core chips with
optional Hyper-Threading (appearing as four or eight cores to the OS) that include an integrated
memory controller.
2008 Intel releases the 4x and 5x series chipsets, the latter of which supports Core i-Series
processors with integrated memory controllers.
2009 Microsoft releases Windows 7, a highly anticipated successor to Vista.
2009 AMD releases the Phenom II processors in 2-, 3-, and 4-core versions.
2009 The IEEE officially approves the 802.11n wireless standard, which increases net maximum
date rate from 54Mbps to 600Mbps.
2010 Intel releases six-core versions of the Core i-Series processor (Gulftown) and a dual-core
version with integrated graphics (Clarkdale). The Gulftown is the first PC processor with more
than 1 billion transistors.
2010 AMD releases six-core versions of the Phenom II processor.
2011 Intel releases the second-generation Core i-Series processors (Sandy Bridge) along with new
6-Series motherboard chipsets. The chipsets and motherboards are quickly recalled due to a bug
in the SATA host adapter. The recall costs Intel nearly a billion dollars and results in a several
month delay in the processors and chipsets reaching the market.
 
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