AMD Athlon Processors - The Advanced Advantage
AMD Athlon processors are products of AMD (Advanced Micro Devices) based in Sunnyvale, California founded in 1969, and its core business has been to provide microprocessor and graphics and media solutions for the computer, communications, and consumer electronics industries. Today with corporate locations at Austin, Texas; and Markham, Ontario, 16,500 employees spread across 80 locations and manufacturing facilities in the U.S., Europe and Asia, AMD has processor products tailored to suit the varied needs of the customers. Broadly, the processors produced by AMD can be classified into four types of processors based on the products that use them as mentioned below.
Desktop Processors
Notebook Processors
Mobile Processors
Server Processors and Workstation Processors
AMD manufactures different types, rather families of processors to suit needs of different customers. As detailed above, we have processors for Desktops, processors for Notebook PC, processors for servers and so on. Within each family there are further divisions. For instance, if we take desktop processors, we have AMD Athlon 64, AMD Athlon 64 FX, AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core, AMD Athlon X2 Dual Core, and AMD Sempron spread over 38 models, with varying frequencies from 1600 MHz to 3200 MHz. Similarly if we take processors for Notebook PCs, we have Mobile AMD Sempron, AMD Turion64 X2 Dual-Core Processor, AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core Processors, spread over 13 models, with frequencies ranging from 1600 MHz to 2300 MHz.
Of the various products of AMD, the focus of this article will be AMD Athlon Processors. Like models of any other company which manufactures processors, AMD models also have numbers. The model numbers are according to AMD are a simple, accurate representation of relative AMD processor performance and the higher the model number, the better the overall software performance on the processor. However due to constraints of space and time, two of AMD Athlon processors considered as representative of the AMD Athlon Processor family are featured in this article. Architecture of AMD Athlon™ 64 FX Processor The AMD Athlon 64 FX processor is AMD's highest performing PC processor available in the market today. The key features of AMD Athlon™ 64 FX Processor include the integrated DDR2 Memory Controller ensures high performance and high bandwidth, designed to reduce DRAM latency by directly connecting the processor to the memory with performance boost of memory intensive applications. They are capable of delivering simultaneous 32- and 64-bit performance with an additional 64 bit internal register for computing performance and they can address beyond 4GB and offers security with Enhanced Virus Protection. Coming to cache, The AMD Athlon 64 FX processor features a large high-performance on-die cache memory with 64KB L1 instruction cache per core, 64KB L1 data cache per core, 1024 L2 cache per core, 1152 KB total effective cache per core, 2304 KB total effective cache per processor. The HyperTransport Bus technology with a 2000MHz bidirectional double data clock rate ensures high speed Input Output communication. Architecture of AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core Processor AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core Processors actually are made up of two processing cores both on the same chip and hence the name 'dual-core'. Dual-core processors perform calculations on two streams of data, unlike the ordinary processors. This results in increased efficiency as well as speed since the calculations are done simultaneously while different programs are running concurrently. This translates into enhanced user friendliness since users need not wait till the computer catches up while switching between programs. AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core Processors are tested extensively so that they are compatible with Microsoft Windows XP, Vista, Windows NT, Windows 2000, as well as Linux and other PC operating systems. HyperTransport technology which is a feature of AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core Processors can increase overall system performance by reducing I/O bottlenecks, increasing system bandwidth, and reducing system latency. The AMD site claims that 'With an AMD Athlon Dual-Core processor, your PC can perform up to 80% faster than a single-core AMD Athlon 64 4000+ processor on the latest power-hungry digital media software applications'. They find usefulness in the areas of amazing high-definition video and photo editing, content creation, and audio mixing. It is capable of delivering simultaneous 32- and 64-bit performance and designed to be compatible with the next generation 64-bit Windows operating system, Microsoft Windows Vista at the same time offering long battery life, better security with Enhanced Virus Protection and feature Direct Connect Architecture for enhanced performance, HyperTransport technology to increase the response of your applications, AMD Digital Media XPress for high performance and playback quality on digital entertainment such as games, streaming video and audio, DVDs, and music and AMD PowerNow! technology which can extend system battery life up to 65%.
Amd-athlon-processors-resource >> Privacy Policy
|
