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Part 1: Comparative History

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 true competition

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Comparative History 80286 chip
1980s-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 286s are installed around
the world
Intel contracts third party companies to produce 286s
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 chip
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.

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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

Intels 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 Intels

chips

Intels solution: dubs its new chip the Pentium instead of

releasing it as the 586
Comparative History - Pentium
Handles 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- 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

Comparative History - AMD K5
1996-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

Intels ability to get a new chip on the market before

AMD has had the effect of overshadowing any of
AMDs 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 Intels MMX code making it

compatible with Pentiums.
Comparative History - AMD K6
K6 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 II
Later 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 Celeron
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

Comparative History - AMDs K6-2
AMD 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 II
In 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 its 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 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
Comparative History - Athlon XP
The 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 Historythe 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 Features
Lightening 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 Features
533 Mhz 8X V-link
interface between North
and South bridge

USB 2.0

ATA133

6 Channel Audio
Using Soyos KT400 Ultra Dragon Motherboard
Higher number better
Higher
number
better
Higher number better
AMD 760 MPX Chipset
(Dual Processor)
Consists of the AMD-762 system controller
(northbridge) and the AMD-768 peripheral bus
controller (southbridge).
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 Bus
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
Designed for Xeon Processor

2 Main Chips

MCH Memory Controller Hub

Controls 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 Configuration
RDRAM

Up to 64 devices supported by the Paired mode

Single Channel-pair Mode

Utilizes 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 Support
400 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 Accelerator
MCH connects to AGP 4X
Connection speed of 1 GB/s

High performance Accelerators supported

Does not Support 8X Accelerators

ICH2 Peripherals Bus
32 Bit PCI Bus

LAN Controller

I/O module
Keyboard, Mouse, Floppy disk drive, etc

ATA / 100 (IDE standard for Hard Drive)

4 USB Ports
 Features and Benefits
Feature 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 increases
System 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 width
USB ports

Note source (Intel 860 Chipset)

Overview 860 chipset
Highly Structured

Powered by up to 7 chips

High performance
Apollo Chipset
Designed for the Pentium 4 processor

3 Segments in the Bus

North Bridge High speed bus

South Bridge peripheral devices

Block Diagram
North Bridge
System Bus
400 MHz

Main memory
Connection at 266 MHz

Bottleneck

Accelerated Graphics Controller AGP

4X 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 (contd)
Several chips available
VT8233
VT8233C
VT8233A

Each with a unique function

Price drops
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)
AC'97 and MC'97 Audio/Modem
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
LAN, sound, modem integrated

4 GB of Ram

Promises to utilize Intels Quad bus pumping

technology

Price conscientious
Thank You