AMD Athlon™ Processor Overview The AMD Athlon™ processor is among the world's most powerful engines for PC computing, as well as the industry's first seventh-generation x86 microarchitecture. The AMD Athlon processor family is designed to power the next generation in x86 computing platforms. It meets the computation-intensive requirements of cutting-edge software applications running on high-end desktop systems, workstations, and servers. Additionally, all AMD Athlon processors are now produced using 0.18-micron process technology.

Business users who work with image processing, digital content creation, CAD/CAE, scientific applications and other computationally-demanding software will benefit from the tremendous processing power of AMD Athlon processor-based systems. Computing enthusiasts who want the performance and clock speeds required to run the latest 3D gaming, entertainment, Internet, and personal productivity software will demand desktop systems powered by the AMD Athlon.

Leading-Edge Performance for Cutting-Edge Applications The AMD Athlon processor's seventh-generation microarchitecture and high-bandwidth system bus enable it to attain outstanding levels of performance. Plus, the AMD Athlon delivers industry-leading integer, floating point, and 3D multimedia performance for x86 platforms.

The AMD Athlon processor provides exceptional processing power on real-world, mainstream Windows® compatible software, as well as computation-intensive applications for high-end desktops and workstations, including digital photo editing, digital video, commercial 3D modeling, image compression, soft DVD, CAD, and speech recognition.

The Most Powerful Multimedia Experience in an x86 Platform The AMD Athlon processor's outstanding performance and next-generation features combine to give end users an outstanding computing experience, whether running standard productivity software or the latest cutting-edge consumer, business, and scientific applications.

Computing enthusiasts get exceptional performance for Internet applications, digital imaging, 3D gaming, and personal creativity software. The AMD Athlon processor's advanced multimedia architecture and 3D technology deliver rich images, fast frame rates, and accurate theater-quality sound. The revolutionary 200-MHz system bus allows users to quickly and easily process Internet content from ADSL/cable modems and digital video imaging devices.

Business users get remarkable performance from AMD Athlon processor-based systems. Popular programs for desktop publishing, database, accounting, and other demanding business applications execute at fast speeds, resulting in incredible levels of productivity. The enormous power of the AMD Athlon processor's visual computing capabilities allows users to unleash their creativity and deliver high impact Web designs and other dynamic communications to effectively reach and influence customers.

Tomorrow's Technology Today The seventh-generation AMD Athlon processor is based on the industry's most advanced x86 microarchitecture. The following features and capabilities combine to give users of AMD Athlon processor-based systems an extraordinary computing experience, as well as the confidence that their systems are designed to meet their computing needs for years to come.

• Microarchitecture: The AMD Athlon processor features a superpipelined, nine-issue superscalar microarchitecture optimized for high clock frequencies. The AMD Athlon contains a total of nine execution pipelines: three for address calculations, three for integer calculations, and three for executing x87 (floating point), 3DNow!™ and MMX™ instructions.
• System Bus: The AMD Athlon system bus is the first 200MHz system bus for x86 platforms, as well as the fastest x86 processor bus available, delivering up 50 percent more peak bandwidth than any other x86 system bus. The AMD Athlon system bus is designed for scalable multiprocessing and leverages Digital's high-performance Alpha™ EV6 bus technology to enable exceptional system performance.
• Floating Point Engine: The AMD Athlon processor includes the first fully pipelined, superscalar floating point engine for x86 platforms. The resulting floating point capability is the most powerful ever delivered in an x86 processor, and it rivals the performance of many RISC processors used in workstations and servers.
• Enhanced 3DNow!™ Technology: The AMD Athlon processor's enhanced 3DNow! technology takes 3D multimedia performance to incredible heights and builds on the 21 instructions of AMD's original 3DNow! technology-the first x86 instruction set to use superscalar SIMD floating point techniques. Enhanced 3DNow! adds 24 new instructions-19 to improve MMX integer math calculations and enhance data movement for Internet streaming applications and 5 DSP extensions for soft modem, soft ADSL, Dolby Digital, and MP3 applications.
• Cache Architecture: The AMD Athlon includes the largest L1 cache (128K total) for x86 platforms. The AMD Athlon also features a high-speed, 64-bit backside L2 cache controller that supports L2 cache sizes ranging from 512K to a massive 8MB. This high-performance cache design takes advantage of the processor's high-speed system bus and minimizes bandwidth bottlenecks.

Processor Architecture/Technology Competitive Comparison

Powering the Next Generation in Computing Platforms The combination of exceptional performance, high clock frequencies, impressive bus bandwidth, and a reliable design makes the AMD Athlon processor family a powerful choice for high-end desktop systems, workstations, and servers.

The AMD Athlon processor offers the scalability and peace-of-mind reliability required by enterprise users and IT managers. The AMD Athlon system bus is also designed for scalable multiprocessing, with the number of AMD Athlon processors in a multiprocessor system determined by chipset implementation. As the AMD Athlon evolves into a family of processors, multiprocessing workstations and servers based on forthcoming AMD Athlon platforms are planned to become available.

High-performance AMD Athlon platforms are planned to provide a new level of performance and data-movement bandwidth for computation-intensive software used in such challenging applications as digital imaging, Internet content development, enterprise computing, CAD/CAE, scientific/technical calculations, and 3D gaming.