Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
compatible with Intel processors, the Athlon was onlysoftware compatible andrequired a
motherboard with an Athlon supporting chipset and processor socket.
The year 2000 saw a significant milestone when both Intel and AMD crossed the 1GHz
barrier, a speed that many thought could never be accomplished. In 2001, Intel introduced
a Pentium 4 version running at 2GHz, the first PC processor to achieve that speed.
November 15, 2001 marked the 30th anniversary of the microprocessor, and in those 30
years processor speed had increased more than 18,500 times (from 0.108MHz to 2GHz).
AMD also introduced the Athlon XP, based on its newer Palomino core, as well as the
Athlon MP, designed for multiprocessor server systems.
In 2002, Intel released a Pentium 4 version running at 3.06GHz, the first PC processor to
break the 3GHz barrier, and the first to feature Intel's Hyper-Threading (HT) Technology,
which turns the processor into a virtual dual-processor configuration. By running two ap-
plication threads at the same time, HT-enabled processors can perform tasks at speeds
25%-40% faster than non-HT-enabled processors can. This encouraged programmers to
write multithreaded applications, which would prepare them for when true multicore pro-
cessors would be released a few years later.
In 2003, AMD released the first 64-bit PC processor: the Athlon 64 (previously code-
namedClawHammer,orK8),whichincorporatedAMD-definedx86-6464-bitextensions
to the IA-32 architecture typified by the Athlon, Pentium 4, and earlier processors. That
year Intel also released the Pentium 4 Extreme Edition, the first consumer-level processor
toincorporateL3cache.Thewhopping2MBofcacheaddedgreatlytothetransistorcount
aswellasperformance.In2004,IntelfollowedAMDbyaddingtheAMD-definedx86-64
extensions to the Pentium 4.
In2005,bothIntelandAMDreleasedtheirfirstdual-coreprocessors,basicallyintegrating
two processors into a single chip. Although boards supporting two or more processors
had been commonly used in network servers for many years prior, this brought dual-CPU
capabilities in an affordable package to standard PCs. Rather than attempting to increase
clock rates, as has been done in the past, adding processing power by integrating two or
more processors into a single chip enables future processors to perform more work with
fewer bottlenecks and with a reduction in both power consumption and heat production.
In 2006, Intel released a new processor family called the Core 2, based on an architecture
that came mostly from previous mobile Pentium M/Core duo processors. The Core 2 was
released in a dual-core version first, followed by a quad-core version (combining two
dual-core die in a single package) later in the year. In 2007, AMD released the Phenom,
whichwasthefirstquad-corePCprocessorwithallfourcoresonasingledie.In2008,In-
tel released the Core i Series (Nehalem) processors, which are single-die quad-core chips
with HT (appearing as eight cores to the OS) that include integrated memory and optional
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