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The AMD Athlon Processor
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The Athlon made its debut on August 21, 1999. The original Athlon core revision, codenamed "K7", was available in speeds of 500 to 650 MHz at its introduction and was later sold at speeds up to 1000 MHz.
Internally, the Athlon was essentially a major reworking of the K6 processor core designed for compatibility with the EV6 bus protocol (first used on DEC's Alpha 21264 RISC processor). AMD dramatically improved the floating-point unit from the K6 and put a large 128K level 1 cache on the chip. Like on the Intel Pentium II there was 512k of secondary cache, mounted on the CPU module and running at a lower speed than the core.
The resulting processor was the fastest x86 in the world. Various different versions of the Athlon held this distinction continuously from August 1999 until January 2002.
References: AMD Athlon Tech Docs |
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AMD Athlon K7500MTR51B C |
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K7500MTR51B C
219941006462 |
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Core Frequency: | 500 MHz | Board Frequency: | 100 MHz (x2) |
Clock Multiplier: | 5.0 | Data bus (ext.): | 64 Bit | Address bus: | 32 Bit | Transistors: | 22,000,000 | Circuit Size: | 0.25 µ | Core / I/O Voltage: | 1.6 / 3.3 V | Introduced: | 08/1999 | Manufactured: | week 41/1999 | Made in: | USA | L1 Cache: | 64+64 KB | L2 Cache: | 512 KB | CPU Code: | K7 Argon | Package Type: | SECC-242 |
Socket: |
Slot A |
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AMD Athlon K7550MTR51B C |
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K7550MTR51B C
219947198734 |
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Core Frequency: | 550 MHz | Board Frequency: | 100 MHz (x2) |
Clock Multiplier: | 5.5 | Data bus (ext.): | 64 Bit | Address bus: | 32 Bit | Transistors: | 22,000,000 | Circuit Size: | 0.25 µ | Core / I/O Voltage: | 1.6 / 3.3 V | Introduced: | 08/1999 | Manufactured: | week 47/1999 | Made in: | USA | L1 Cache: | 64+64 KB | L2 Cache: | 512 KB | CPU Code: | K7 Argon | Package Type: | SECC-242 |
Socket: |
Slot A |
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AMD Athlon K7650MTR51B C |
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K7650MTR51B C
219937137114 |
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Core Frequency: | 650 MHz | Board Frequency: | 100 MHz (x2) |
Clock Multiplier: | 6.5 | Data bus (ext.): | 64 Bit | Address bus: | 32 Bit | Transistors: | 22,000,000 | Circuit Size: | 0.25 µ | Core / I/O Voltage: | 1.6 / 3.3 V | Introduced: | 08/1999 | Manufactured: | week 37/1999 | Made in: | USA | L1 Cache: | 64+64 KB | L2 Cache: | 512 KB | CPU Code: | K7 Argon | Package Type: | SECC-242 |
Socket: |
Slot A |
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L2-Cache runs with 50% (up to 700 MHZ), 40% (up to 850 MHz) or 33% (up to 1000 MHz) of CPU speed |
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AMD Athlon K7600MTR51B A |
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K7600CURBBA
91993260507
9951FPAW
(m)(c)1999 AMD | |
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Core Frequency: | 600 MHz | Board Frequency: | 100 MHz (x2) |
Clock Multiplier: | 6.0 | Data bus (ext.): | 64 Bit | Address bus: | 32 Bit | Transistors: | 22,000,000 | Circuit Size: | 0.18 µ | Core / I/O Voltage: | 1.6 - 1.8 / 3.3 V | Introduced: | 08/1999 | Manufactured: | week 51/1999 | Made in: | USA | L1 Cache: | 64+64 KB | L2 Cache: | 512 KB | CPU Code: | K75 Pluto | Package Type: | SECC-242 |
Socket: |
Slot A |
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AMD Athlon K7700MTR51B A |
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K7700MTR51B A
210008524481 |
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Core Frequency: | 700 MHz | Board Frequency: | 100 MHz (x2) |
Clock Multiplier: | 7.0 | Data bus (ext.): | 64 Bit | Address bus: | 32 Bit | Transistors: | 22,000,000 | Circuit Size: | 0.18 µ | Core / I/O Voltage: | 1.6 - 1.8 / 3.3 V | Introduced: | 08/1999 | Manufactured: | week 08/2000 | Made in: | USA | L1 Cache: | 64+64 KB | L2 Cache: | 512 KB | CPU Code: | K75 Pluto | Package Type: | SECC-242 |
Socket: |
Slot A |
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AMD Athlon K7750MTR52B A |
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K7750MTR52B A
210027535592 |
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Core Frequency: | 750 MHz | Board Frequency: | 100 MHz (x2) |
Clock Multiplier: | 7.5 | Data bus (ext.): | 64 Bit | Address bus: | 32 Bit | Transistors: | 22,000,000 | Circuit Size: | 0.18 µ | Core / I/O Voltage: | 1.6 - 1.8 / 3.3 V | Introduced: | 08/1999 | Manufactured: | week 27/2000 | Made in: | USA | L1 Cache: | 64+64 KB | L2 Cache: | 512 KB | CPU Code: | K75 Pluto | Package Type: | SECC-242 |
Socket: |
Slot A |
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AMD Athlon K7800MPR52B A |
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K7800CPRBBA
91109620289
0006BPIW
(m)(c)1999 AMD | |
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Core Frequency: | 800 MHz | Board Frequency: | 100 MHz (x2) |
Clock Multiplier: | 8.0 | Data bus (ext.): | 64 Bit | Address bus: | 32 Bit | Transistors: | 22,000,000 | Circuit Size: | 0.18 µ | Core / I/O Voltage: | 1.6 - 1.8 / 3.3 V | Introduced: | 08/1999 | Manufactured: | week 11/1999 | Made in: | USA | L1 Cache: | 64+64 KB | L2 Cache: | 512 KB | CPU Code: | K75 Pluto | Package Type: | SECC-242 |
Socket: |
Slot A |
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AMD Athlon K7850MPR52B A |
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K7850MPR52B A
230014040882 |
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Core Frequency: | 850 MHz | Board Frequency: | 100 MHz (x2) |
Clock Multiplier: | 8.5 | Data bus (ext.): | 64 Bit | Address bus: | 32 Bit | Transistors: | 22,000,000 | Circuit Size: | 0.18 µ | Core / I/O Voltage: | 1.6 - 1.8 / 3.3 V | Introduced: | Feb. 11, 2000 | Manufactured: | week 14/2000 | Made in: | USA | L1 Cache: | 64+64 KB | L2 Cache: | 512 KB | CPU Code: | K75 Pluto | Package Type: | SECC-242 |
Socket: |
Slot A |
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On June 4, 2000 AMD introduced an enhanced version of the Athlon processor, codenamed "Thunderbird". Fabricated using AMD's 0.18-micron process technology, the new core replaced the K75 chip's 512KB of off-die Level 2 cache by 256KB of cache integrated onto the die itself and running at the full clock speed of the processor. This is in contrast to the original Athlons that operated their L2 cache at a certain fraction of the core clock speed.
As well as boosting performance, moving the cache on-die also allowed AMD to follow Intel's lead in moving from slot-based processors in favour of a socket form factor - in AMD's case, a 462-pin format, named Socket A. Supporting PC133 memory, the enhanced Athlon processor was initially available in six speeds, from 750 MHz to 1 GHz, in both Slot A (albeit available to OEMs only) and the new Socket A packaging.
The last Athlon processors based on the Thunderbird core were released in the summer of 2001, by which time speeds had reached 1.4 GHz. Hereafter, the Athlon was to be replaced by the Athlon XP family based on the new Palomino core. |
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AMD Athlon A0700MPR24B A |
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AMD-A0700MPR24B A
710028056511 |
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Core Frequency: | 700 MHz | Board Frequency: | 100 MHz (x2) |
Clock Multiplier: | 7.0 | Data bus (ext.): | 64 Bit | Address bus: | 32 Bit | Transistors: | 37,000,000 | Circuit Size: | 0.18 µ | Core / I/O Voltage: | 1.6 - 1.8 / 3.3 V | Manufactured: | week 28/2000 | Made in: | USA | L1 Cache: | 64+64 KB | L2 Cache: | 256 KB | CPU Code: | Athlon Thunderbird | Package Type: | SECC-242 |
Socket: |
Slot A |
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AMD released the Athlon XP ("eXtra Performance") on May 14, 2001, codenamed "Palomino". This Athlon version, the first to include the SSE instruction set from the Intel Pentium III as well as AMD's 3DNow! Professional, was introduced at speeds between 1333 and 1733 MHz. The major changes were optimizations to the core design to increase efficiency by roughly 10% over a Thunderbird at the same clock-speed, and power consumption reductions to allow it to be clocked faster.
The "Palomino" was first released as a mobile version, called the Mobile Athlon 4 (also codenamed "Corvette"), after the fact that it was AMD's fourth core to be called Athlon (after the original K7, the 0.18 µ K75, and the Thunderbird), but many people noted that the name was most likely a jab at the then-brand-new Intel Pentium 4. The desktop Athlon XP followed a few months later, in October.
The Athlon XP was marketed using a PR rating system, which compared its performance to a Thunderbird. Because the XP has much higher IPC (instructions per clock) than the Pentium 4 (and about 10% higher than a Thunderbird), it is more efficient and delivers the same level of performance at a lower clock-speed, or higher performance at the same speed. |
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The K75 was codenamed 'Pluto' for the 550-850 MHz versions and 'Orion' for the 900 - 1000 MHz versions.