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Part 1: Comparative HistoryGenerally 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 true competition

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Comparative History – 80286 chip1980’s-Intel was the only true producer of marketable

computer chips

1982-introduce 80286

286 was able to run software of its prior microprocessor

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Comparative History – 80286 chip

Within 6 years, 15 million 286’s are installed around

the world

Intel contracts third party companies to produce 286’s

and variants

AMD was one of these third party companies

AMD became very efficient and capable of being its

own producer of microprocessors

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Comparative History – 386 chip

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

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Comparative History – 386 chipDuring 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.

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Comparative History -486 chip

1989-Intel releases its 486DX.

Allowed point and clicking

Initially twice as fast as its predecessor.

Intel continued to upgrade to speeds reaching 66MHz.

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Comparative History -Am386 chip

1991-AMD released Am386

Intel’s 486 released two years prior

AMD believed there still existed a market

By October, AMD sold one million units

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Comparative History -Am486 chip

1993-AMD releases first competing chip: Am486

1994-AMD improves chip with Am486DX

Am486DX processes up to 100MHz

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Comparative History - Pentium

1993, Intel realizes it cannot trademark numbers “x86.”

This allows AMD the ability to essentially clone Intel’s chips

Intel’s solution: dubs its new chip the Pentium instead of releasing it as the “586”

Comparative History - PentiumHandles and processes more media types such as speech,

sound , and photographic images.

It Offered multiple processing speeds up to 200MHz.

It became well entrenched in the market

During this time, Intel truly dominated

Comparative History - Am5x86

1995- AMD’s 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

Comparative History - AMD K51996-K5 introduced

First chip comparable to the Pentium

Could be placed in the same motherboard as the Pentium,

making it compatible

Because it was released 3 years after the Pentium, it was met

with cool reception

Comparative History – Pentium Pro

In the previous year, Intel released the Pentium Pro

Able to handle more instructions per clock cycle

Intel’s ability to get a new chip on the market before AMD has had the effect of overshadowing any of AMD’s microprocessors

Comparative History - AMD K6

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 Intel’s MMX code making it compatible with Pentiums.

Comparative History - AMD K6K6 was released in 1997 and reached speeds of 166Mhz to

200Mhz

K6 was significantly cheaper than the Pentium

K6 was able to move up to speeds as high as 300MHz, out

performing the Pentiums

Intel was ready for the challenge

Comparative History - Pentium IILater than year, Intel unveils the Pentium II

It was equipped with MMX instructions, ready to handle video, audio, and graphics data

Better capable of handling video editing, sending media via the Internet, and reprocessing music

By 1998, the Pentium began to climb in processing speeds up to 450 MHz.

Comparative History - The CeleronK6 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

Comparative History - AMD’s K6-2AMD fights back with an enhanced K6 to take on the Pentium II:

the K6-2

Their K6 chip included what they called “3DNow” 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

Comparative History - Pentium III

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

Comparative History - the Athlon

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

Comparative History - Celeron IIIn 2000, Intel decides to launch a two pronged attack

against AMD

First, Intel fights for low-end market by introducing

the Celeron II

It ranges in speed between 500 and 1100MHz.

It was a stripped down processor with enhanced speed

It was fairly cheap, making it competitive

Comparative History -Pentium IV

Intel also introduces the Pentium IV

It uses four main new technologies: Hyper Pipelined

Technology, Rapid Execution Engine, Execution

Trace Cache and a 400 MHz system bus

Its major improvement was increased speed, initially

starting at 1.5Ghz with ability for expansion

Today it’s reaching upwards to a remarkable 3GHz

Comparative History - Pentium IV

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

Comparative History - the Duron

As result of Intel’s attack on AMD, Intel is once again dominating the market

AMD’s 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

Comparative History - Athlon XPThe Athlon chip was destroying the Pentium III, but now

is destined for the graveyard

In response to the Pentium IV, AMD enhanced the

Athlon by coming out with the XP series.

Test show that an Athlon XP running 1.4GHz performs

nearly as well as a Pentium of 2Ghz

The Athlon XP is a quality chip, but is fading away under

the onslaught of the heavy performance of the Pentium IV

Comparative History–the ClawHammer

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.

Most advanced chipset for the AMD CPU

Consists of the VT8235 Southbridge and the VT8377 Northbridge.

Main Features of KT400

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

KT400 VT8377 FeaturesLightening fast memory

access: 2.7 Gb/s

AGP @ 8X offers 2.1 Gb/s dedicated speed to 3D graphics

Fast 333 Mhz FSB

KT400 VT8235 Features533 Mhz 8X V-link

interface between North and South bridge

USB 2.0

ATA133

6 Channel Audio

Using Soyo’s KT400 Ultra Dragon Motherboard

Higher number better

Consists of the AMD-762 system controller (northbridge) and the AMD-768 peripheral bus controller (southbridge).

AMD 760 MPX Chipset (Dual Processor)

Main features of AMD 760MPX

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

Features of AMD 760MPX 762 System Controller Two 266 MHz point-

to-point AMD system buses

PC 2100 DDR Ram memory @ 266 Mhz

AGP 4X video card support

Features of AMD 760MPX 768 Peripheral Bus Controller 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

Advantages of the AIPC and the SMBus BusThrough 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

StructureDesigned for Xeon Processor

2 Main Chips

MCH Memory Controller HubControls the high speed bus

ICH2 I/O controller Hub Controls the peripheral devices

Over view of 860 chipset

High Speed Bus

Memory

64 Bit PCI connection

Graphics Accelerators

Memory ConfigurationRDRAM

Up to 64 devices supported by the Paired mode

Single Channel-pair ModeUtilizes memory modules ( 4 Gigabytes)

Multiple Channel- pair mode Utilizes MRH-R to control the expanded capabilities

( 16 Gigabytes of RAM)

Block Diagram

64 bit PCI Support400 MHz connection to the P64H chip

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 AcceleratorMCH connects to AGP 4X

Connection speed of 1 GB/s

High performance Accelerators supported

Does not Support 8X Accelerators

ICH2 Peripherals Bus32 Bit PCI Bus

LAN Controller

I/O moduleKeyboard, Mouse, Floppy disk drive, etc

ATA / 100 (IDE standard for Hard Drive)

4 USB Ports

Features and BenefitsFeature Benefit

Supports two Intel Xeon Processors with NetBurst Microarchitecture and hyper-Threading teconlogy

512 KB L2 chacke for dual-processing server platforms

400 MHz System Bus Capability Balances the system bus band withd with the memory

Intel Hub Architecture with option P64H Dual 64-bit 66 MHz I/O segments for fast drive access and high speed networks

AGP 4X 1 GB/s of Graphics bandwidth allows high performance Graphics

MRH-R (RDRAM Based repeater Hub) Extends RDRAM memory capacities and increasesSystem scalability

Dual RDRAM channels Maximum memory performance(3.2 GB/s or 400MHz)

Prefetch Cache System concurrency so that simultaneous process do not impact system performance

Dual USB Controllers Enhanced plug and play with four full band widthUSB ports

Note source (Intel 860 Chipset)

Overview 860 chipset

Highly Structured

Powered by up to 7 chips

High performance

Apollo ChipsetDesigned for the Pentium 4 processor

3 Segments in the Bus

North Bridge High speed bus

South Bridge peripheral devices

Block Diagram

North BridgeSystem Bus

400 MHz

Main memoryConnection at 266 MHz

Bottleneck

Accelerated Graphics Controller AGP4X AGP support

South Bridge

Controls 32 bit PCI Bus (33 MHz)

Supports up to 6 USB devices(2.0 Standard)

Hard Drive IDE (ATA 33 / 66 / 100 )

LAN controller VT6103

South Bridge (cont’d)

Several chips availableVT8233 VT8233C VT8233A

Each with a unique function

Price drops

FeaturesSupports 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 (cont’d)AC'97 and MC'97 Audio/Modem Integrated 3Com 10/100Mb Ethernet Media Access

ControllerSupport for 2 ATA 33/66/100 interfaces6 USB ports, UHCI compliantAdvanced power management capabilitiesNote Source: (Via P4X266)

Overview Highly structured

Unique featuresLAN, sound, modem integrated

4 GB of Ram

Promises to utilize Intel’s Quad bus pumping technology

Price conscientious

Thank You