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Generally Intel has been the dominant producer of microprocessor chips AMD has proven to be a fierce competitor Competition stimulated the industry by producing new and innovative microprocessors In the mid nineties Intel begins to face 2 true competition
1980s-Intel was the only true producer of marketable computer chips 1982-introduce 80286 286 was able to run software of its prior microprocessor
1985, Intel releases its 32-bit 386 microprocessor. Faster and capable of multitasking AMD, under licensed production, produces 386 chips allowing Intel to meet market demands
During the reign of the 386, AMD decides to produce its own CPU. 1987-AMD began legal arbitration over rights to produce their own chips. After 5 years of battle, the courts sided with AMD.
1989-Intel releases its 486DX. Allowed point and clicking Initially twice as fast as its predecessor. Intel continued to upgrade to speeds reaching 66MHz.
1991-AMD released Am386 Intels 486 released two years prior AMD believed there still existed a market By October, AMD sold one million units
1993-AMD releases first competing chip: Am486 1994-AMD improves chip with Am486DX Am486DX processes up to 100MHz
1993, Intel realizes it cannot trademark numbers x86. This allows AMD the ability to essentially clone Intels chips Intels solution: dubs its new chip the Pentium instead of releasing it as the 586
1995- AMDs first attempt to compete with the Pentium by introducing Am5x86 It was really for those who wanted to upgrade their 486 motherboards without making a jump to the Pentium motherboard AMD did not fare well with this chip
1996-K5 introduced
First chip comparable to the Pentium
In the previous year, Intel released the Pentium Pro Able to handle more instructions per clock cycle Intels ability to get a new chip on the market before AMD has had the effect of overshadowing any of AMDs microprocessors
1996-AMD purchases the company NexGen who were making a microprocessor of their own AMD uses their core 686 processor to develop the AMD K6 Additionally, they slap on Intels MMX code making it compatible with Pentiums.
K6 was doing well as a cost effective alternative to the Pentium II, although it was an inferior chip In response, in 1998, Intel introduced its own cheaper and inferiror microprocessor: the Celeron It was a stripped down version of the Pentium II
technology
3DNow is an additional twenty-two instructions to better handle audio, video, and graphic intensive programs AMD then releases K6-3 and proves to be a threat to Intel
1999-Intel responds by coming out with the Pentium III It had an additional 70 instructions, improving its ability to process advanced imaging, streaming audio, video, & speech recognition programs One goal of the Pentium III was to enhance the Internet experience
The Athlon was a new chip from the ground up It was capable of doing everything the Pentium III could do, but was much cheaper The Athlon was beating out the Pentium III
In 2000, Intel decides to launch a two pronged attack against AMD First, Intel fights for low-end market by
It ranges in speed between 500 and 1100MHz. It was a stripped down processor with enhanced speed It was fairly cheap, making it competitive
Its major improvement was increased speed, initially starting at 1.5Ghz with ability for expansion Today its reaching upwards to a remarkable 3GHz
The Pentium IV can now produce high quality video stream radio and TV quality information across the internet Render upscale graphics in real-time Perform several applications simultaneously while connected to the Internet
As result of Intels attack on AMD, Intel is once again dominating the market AMDs response to the Celeron II was the Duron, released the same year (2000) It is a geared down version of the Athlon, but edges out the Celeron
The Athlon chip was destroying the Pentium III, but now is destined for the graveyard
Intel now holds edge over AMD in chip technology Rumored that AMD is developing a powerhouse chip called the ClawHammer It is apparently in a testing stage
Chipsets
Our goal has been to understand the history and details of the competition and their processors between Intel and Amd Also of importance are Chipsets Knowing some information on chipsets helps determine an appropriate opinion on Intel & AMD
Chipsets
A chipset is a group of integrated circuits, sold as one unit, designed to perform one or more related functions We are focused on chipsets that provide functionality for the CPU We compared chipsets from both AMD and Intel as well as an outside manufacturer, who makes chipsets for both, VIA.
Chipset
Most advanced chipset for the AMD CPU Consists of the VT8235 Southbridge and the VT8377 Northbridge.
Front Side Bus (FSB) up to 333Mhz Support for PC 3200 DDR Ram memory @ 400 Mhz North-South Bridge Link @ 533 Mhz 5 available PCI slots
Lightening fast memory access: 2.7 Gb/s AGP @ 8X offers 2.1 Gb/s dedicated speed to 3D graphics Fast 333 Mhz FSB
533 Mhz 8X V-link interface between North and South bridge USB 2.0 ATA133 6 Channel Audio
Gigabyte 7VAXP Abit AT7 MAX2 ASUS A7V8X MSI KT4 Ultra Soyo KT400 Ultra Dragon
Consists of the AMD-762 system controller (northbridge) and the AMD-768 peripheral bus controller (southbridge).
Front Side Bus (FSB) up to 266 Mhz per processor (533Mhz) Support for PC 2100 DDR Ram memory @ 266 Mhz North-South Bridge Link @ 66 Mhz Up to 7 available PCI slots
Host PCI bus utilizing a 66MHz/64-bit interface. Secondary 33MHz/32-bit PCI bus interface, including PCI bus arbiter with support for up to eight external devices UDMA 33/66/100 compatible EIDE bus master controller SMBus controller with one SMBus port
Through the AIPC bus, the Processors have direct access to the south bridge Through the SMBus, the memory has the direct access to the south bridge Disadvantage of direct access can be potential data conflict
Structure
Graphics Accelerators
Memory Configuration
Utilizes memory modules ( 4 Gigabytes) Utilizes MRH-R to control the expanded capabilities ( 16 Gigabytes of RAM)
Block Diagram
Allows for a fast connection to a high speed, PCI device High data transfer rate High Speed A pair are bundled in the chipset
Graphics Accelerator
AGP 4X
MRH-R (RDRAM Based repeater Hub) Dual RDRAM channels Prefetch Cache
High performance
Apollo Chipset
Block Diagram
North Bridge
System Bus
400 MHz
Main memory
4X AGP support
South Bridge
(2.0 Standard)
IDE (ATA 33 / 66 / 100 )
Hard Drive
Features
Supports Intel Pentium 4 Processor 400MHz (Quad 100) FSB setting AGP4X graphics Supports DDR200/266 SDRAM as well as PC100/133 SDRAM Ultra fast 266MB per second V-Link between North and South Bridge
Features (contd)
Integrated 3Com 10/100Mb Ethernet Media Access Controller Support for 2 ATA 33/66/100 interfaces 6 USB ports, UHCI compliant Advanced power management capabilities Note Source: (Via P4X266)
Overview
Highly structured
Unique features
4 GB of Ram Promises to utilize Intels Quad bus technology Price conscientious pumping
Professional Opinion
After serious consideration to: Chip performance Reliability Some research $50 from Intels PR
We conclude that the
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