As expected, Advanced Micro Devices Inc has taken the clock speed crown from Intel Corp, announcing a 650MHz addition to its Athlon CPU range, which was launched yesterday. However, the company admits that the toughest challenge facing the new range – which also includes 600, 550 and 500MHz chips – is ensuring that chipset and motherboard makers support the new chip so that silicon infrastructure will be available in volume and at a good price for PC systems.
Compaq Computer Corp and IBM Corp are first out of the gate with PCs based on the processor, which was formerly known as the K7. The first systems are expected to be available next week. AMD claims that, clock for clock, Athlon systems outperform equivalent Pentium III and Xeon systems. The company is claiming floating point operations up to 35% faster and significantly better 3D graphics processing.
Despite the impressive performance of the new chip, AMD will have to work to ensure solid OEM support for its product. The problem for the company is that the Athlon moves from previous AMD designs and does not use an Intel-compatible chip interface. The Athlon uses a ‘Slot A’ connection to the motherboard and AMD will be producing the AMD750 chipset to support this connection. However, to make the Athlon really attractive to OEMs, it must drive the cost of infrastructure for the architecture. This can only be done by getting the large Asian chipset and motherboard makers on board. So far, AMD has announced that VIA Technologies Inc, Acer Labs Inc and SiS Inc have all signed up to produce chipsets for the Athlon, while Microstar, Gigabyte, Asus and FIC have announced motherboards. However, AMD spokesperson, Drew Prairie, admitted, the big challenge for the rest of the year is lining up the OEMs with the motherboard manufacturers.
The first wave of Athlons will be produced at AMD’s Fab 25 in Austin, Texas, with the controversial Fab 30 in Dresden, Germany coming online in the first half of next year. AMD expect to introduce more than a million Athlons in the fourth quarter of this year, as well as introducing a 700MHz version built on a 0.18 micron process.
