Athlon 64

Athlon 64 is a product in the microelectronics industry and was launched in September 2003. It was developed by Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), a company founded by Lisa Su. The Athlon 64 was eventually discontinued in 2006. As a product in the microelectronics industry, it faced competition from other companies within the same sector.

The Athlon 64 is an ninth-generation, AMD64-architecture microprocessor produced by Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), released on September 23, 2003. It is the third processor to bear the name Athlon, and the immediate successor to the Athlon XP. The second processor (after the Opteron) to implement the AMD64 architecture and the first 64-bit processor targeted at the average consumer, it was AMD's primary consumer microprocessor, and primarily competed with Intel's Pentium 4, especially the Prescott and Cedar Mill core revisions. It is AMD's first K8, eighth-generation processor core for desktop and mobile computers.[4] Despite being natively 64-bit, the AMD64 architecture is backward-compatible with 32-bit x86 instructions.[5] Athlon 64s have been produced for Socket 754, Socket 939, Socket 940, and Socket AM2. The line was succeeded by the dual-core Athlon 64 X2 and Athlon X2 lines.

Performance

Max. CPU clock rate 1.0 GHz to 3.2 GHz

HyperTransport speeds 800 MT/s to 1000 MT/s

Architecture and classification

Technology node 130nm to 65nm

Microarchitecture K8 Microarchitecture

Instruction set MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, x86-64, 3DNow!

Physical specifications

Cores

1

Socket(s)

Socket 754, Socket 939, Socket 940, AM2, AM2+, Socket F

History

Predecessor Athlon

Successor Athlon 64 X2

Background

К8

The Athlon 64 was originally codenamed ClawHammer by AMD, and was referred to as such internally and in press releases. The first Athlon 64 FX was based on the first Opteron core, SledgeHammer. Both cores, produced on a 130 nanometer process, were first introduced on September 23, 2003. The models first available were the FX-51, fitting Socket 940, and the 3200+, fitting Socket 754. Like the Opteron, on which it was based, the Athlon FX-51 required buffered random-access memory (RAM), increasing the final cost of an upgrade.The week of the Athlon 64's launch, Intel released the Pentium 4 Extreme Edition, a CPU designed to compete with the Athlon 64 FX. The Extreme Edition was widely considered a marketing ploy to draw publicity away from AMD, and was quickly nicknamed among some circles the "Emergency Edition".[9] Despite a very strong demand for the chip, AMD experienced early manufacturing difficulties that made it difficult to deliver Athlon 64s in quantity. In the early months of the Athlon 64 lifespan, AMD could only produce 100,000 chips per month. However, it was very competitive in terms of performance to the Pentium 4, with magazine PC World calling it the "fastest yet". "Newcastle" was released soon after ClawHammer, with half the Level 2 cache.

AMD Athlon 64 3200+ (2.0 GHz) Clawhammer, Socket 754. It is one of the first x86-64 processors available to the general consumer market.

All the 64-bit processors sold by AMD so far have their genesis in the K8 or Hammer project. On June 1, 2004, AMD released new versions of both the ClawHammer and Newcastle core revisions for the newly introduced Socket 939, an altered Socket 940 without the need for buffered memory. Socket 939 offered two main improvements over Socket 754: the memory controller was altered with dual-channel architecture,doubling peak memory bandwidth, and the HyperTransport bus was increased in speed from 800 MHz to 1000 MHz.Socket 939 also was introduced in the FX series in the form of the FX-55. At the same time, AMD also began to ship the "Winchester" core, based on a 90 nanometer process.

Core revisions "Venice" and "San Diego" succeeded all prior revisions on April 15, 2005. Venice, the lower-end part, was produced for both Sockets 754 and 939, and included 512 kB of L2 cache. San Diego, the higher-end chip, was produced only for Socket 939 and doubled Venice's L2 cache to 1 MB. Both were produced on the 90 nm fabrication process. Both also included support for the SSE3 instruction set, a new feature that had been included in the rival Pentium 4 since the release of the Prescott core in February 2004.[21] In addition, AMD overhauled the memory controller for this revision, resulting in performance improvements as well as support for newer DDR RAM.

AMD Athlon 64 3200+ (2.0 GHz) Clawhammer, Socket 754. It is one of the first x86-64 processors available to the general consumer market.

On April 21, 2005, less than a week after the release of Venice and San Diego, AMD announced its next addition to the Athlon 64 line, the Athlon 64 X2. Released on May 31, 2005,[24] it also initially had two different core revisions available to the public, Manchester and Toledo, the only appreciable difference between them being the amount of L2 cache. Both were released only for Socket 939.[26] The Athlon 64 X2 was received very well by reviewers and the general public, with a general consensus emerging that AMD's implementation of multi-core was superior to that of the competing Pentium D.[27][28] Some felt initially that the X2 would cause market confusion with regard to price points since the new processor was targeted at the same "enthusiast," US$350 and above market already occupied by AMD's existing socket 939 Athlon 64s.[30] AMD's official breakdown of the chips placed the Athlon X2 aimed at a segment they called the "prosumer", along with digital media fans. The Athlon 64 was targeted at the mainstream consumer, and the Athlon FX at gamers. The Sempron budget processor was targeted at value-conscious consumers.Following the launch of the Athlon 64 X2, AMD surpassed Intel in US retail sales for a period of time, although Intel retained overall market leadership because of its exclusive relationships with direct sellers such as Dell.

DDR2

The Athlon 64 had been maligned by some critics for some time because of its lack of support for DDR2 SDRAM, an emerging technology that had been adopted much earlier by Intel.AMD's official position was that the CAS latency on DDR2 had not progressed to a point where it would be advantageous for the consumer to adopt it. AMD finally remedied this gap with the "Orleans" core revision, the first Athlon 64 to fit Socket AM2, released on May 23, 2006. "Windsor", an Athlon 64 X2 revision for Socket AM2, was released concurrently. Both Orleans and Windsor have either 512 kB or 1 MB of L2 cache per core. The Athlon 64 FX-62 was also released concurrently on the Socket AM2 platform.Socket AM2 also uses less power than prior platforms, and supports AMD-V.

The memory controller used in all DDR2 SDRAM capable processors (Socket AM2), has extended column address range of 11 columns instead of conventional 10 columns, and the support of 16 kB page size, with at most 2048 individual entries supported. An OCZ unbuffered DDR2 kit, optimized for 64-bit operating systems, was released to exploit the functionality provided by the memory controller in socket AM2 processors, allowing the memory controller to stay longer on the same page, thus benefitting graphics intensive applications.

The Athlon 64 is an ninth-generation, AMD64-architecture microprocessor produced by Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), released on September 23, 2003. It is the third processor to bear the name Athlon, and the immediate successor to the Athlon XP. The second processor (after the Opteron) to implement the AMD64 architecture and the first 64-bit processor targeted at the average consumer, it was AMD's primary consumer microprocessor, and primarily competed with Intel's Pentium 4, especially the Prescott and Cedar Mill core revisions. It is AMD's first K8, eighth-generation processor core for desktop and mobile computers.[4] Despite being natively 64-bit, the AMD64 architecture is backward-compatible with 32-bit x86 instructions.[5] Athlon 64s have been produced for Socket 754, Socket 939, Socket 940, and Socket AM2. The line was succeeded by the dual-core Athlon 64 X2 and Athlon X2 lines.

Performance

Max. CPU clock rate 1.0 GHz to 3.2 GHz

HyperTransport speeds 800 MT/s to 1000 MT/s

Architecture and classification

Technology node 130nm to 65nm

Microarchitecture K8 Microarchitecture

Instruction set MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, x86-64, 3DNow!

Physical specifications

Cores

1

Socket(s)

Socket 754, Socket 939, Socket 940, AM2, AM2+, Socket F

History

Predecessor Athlon

Successor Athlon 64 X2

Background

К8

The Athlon 64 was originally codenamed ClawHammer by AMD, and was referred to as such internally and in press releases. The first Athlon 64 FX was based on the first Opteron core, SledgeHammer. Both cores, produced on a 130 nanometer process, were first introduced on September 23, 2003. The models first available were the FX-51, fitting Socket 940, and the 3200+, fitting Socket 754. Like the Opteron, on which it was based, the Athlon FX-51 required buffered random-access memory (RAM), increasing the final cost of an upgrade.The week of the Athlon 64's launch, Intel released the Pentium 4 Extreme Edition, a CPU designed to compete with the Athlon 64 FX. The Extreme Edition was widely considered a marketing ploy to draw publicity away from AMD, and was quickly nicknamed among some circles the "Emergency Edition".[9] Despite a very strong demand for the chip, AMD experienced early manufacturing difficulties that made it difficult to deliver Athlon 64s in quantity. In the early months of the Athlon 64 lifespan, AMD could only produce 100,000 chips per month. However, it was very competitive in terms of performance to the Pentium 4, with magazine PC World calling it the "fastest yet". "Newcastle" was released soon after ClawHammer, with half the Level 2 cache.

AMD Athlon 64 3200+ (2.0 GHz) Clawhammer, Socket 754. It is one of the first x86-64 processors available to the general consumer market.

All the 64-bit processors sold by AMD so far have their genesis in the K8 or Hammer project. On June 1, 2004, AMD released new versions of both the ClawHammer and Newcastle core revisions for the newly introduced Socket 939, an altered Socket 940 without the need for buffered memory. Socket 939 offered two main improvements over Socket 754: the memory controller was altered with dual-channel architecture,doubling peak memory bandwidth, and the HyperTransport bus was increased in speed from 800 MHz to 1000 MHz.Socket 939 also was introduced in the FX series in the form of the FX-55. At the same time, AMD also began to ship the "Winchester" core, based on a 90 nanometer process.

Core revisions "Venice" and "San Diego" succeeded all prior revisions on April 15, 2005. Venice, the lower-end part, was produced for both Sockets 754 and 939, and included 512 kB of L2 cache. San Diego, the higher-end chip, was produced only for Socket 939 and doubled Venice's L2 cache to 1 MB. Both were produced on the 90 nm fabrication process. Both also included support for the SSE3 instruction set, a new feature that had been included in the rival Pentium 4 since the release of the Prescott core in February 2004.[21] In addition, AMD overhauled the memory controller for this revision, resulting in performance improvements as well as support for newer DDR RAM.

AMD Athlon 64 3200+ (2.0 GHz) Clawhammer, Socket 754. It is one of the first x86-64 processors available to the general consumer market.

On April 21, 2005, less than a week after the release of Venice and San Diego, AMD announced its next addition to the Athlon 64 line, the Athlon 64 X2. Released on May 31, 2005,[24] it also initially had two different core revisions available to the public, Manchester and Toledo, the only appreciable difference between them being the amount of L2 cache. Both were released only for Socket 939.[26] The Athlon 64 X2 was received very well by reviewers and the general public, with a general consensus emerging that AMD's implementation of multi-core was superior to that of the competing Pentium D.[27][28] Some felt initially that the X2 would cause market confusion with regard to price points since the new processor was targeted at the same "enthusiast," US$350 and above market already occupied by AMD's existing socket 939 Athlon 64s.[30] AMD's official breakdown of the chips placed the Athlon X2 aimed at a segment they called the "prosumer", along with digital media fans. The Athlon 64 was targeted at the mainstream consumer, and the Athlon FX at gamers. The Sempron budget processor was targeted at value-conscious consumers.Following the launch of the Athlon 64 X2, AMD surpassed Intel in US retail sales for a period of time, although Intel retained overall market leadership because of its exclusive relationships with direct sellers such as Dell.

DDR2

The Athlon 64 had been maligned by some critics for some time because of its lack of support for DDR2 SDRAM, an emerging technology that had been adopted much earlier by Intel.AMD's official position was that the CAS latency on DDR2 had not progressed to a point where it would be advantageous for the consumer to adopt it. AMD finally remedied this gap with the "Orleans" core revision, the first Athlon 64 to fit Socket AM2, released on May 23, 2006. "Windsor", an Athlon 64 X2 revision for Socket AM2, was released concurrently. Both Orleans and Windsor have either 512 kB or 1 MB of L2 cache per core. The Athlon 64 FX-62 was also released concurrently on the Socket AM2 platform.Socket AM2 also uses less power than prior platforms, and supports AMD-V.

The memory controller used in all DDR2 SDRAM capable processors (Socket AM2), has extended column address range of 11 columns instead of conventional 10 columns, and the support of 16 kB page size, with at most 2048 individual entries supported. An OCZ unbuffered DDR2 kit, optimized for 64-bit operating systems, was released to exploit the functionality provided by the memory controller in socket AM2 processors, allowing the memory controller to stay longer on the same page, thus benefitting graphics intensive applications.