Intel vs AMD

By Carrie Pipkin: Introduction and History

Ramiro Bolanos : Intel and VIA chipsets
Dan Hepp: VIA and AMD chipsets, Conclusion

1
 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 2
 Comparative History
– 80286 chip

 1980’s-Intel was the only true producer of

marketable computer chips
 1982-introduce 80286
 286 was able to run software of its prior
microprocessor

3
 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
4
 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

5
 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.

6
 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.

7
 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

8
 Comparative History
-Am486 chip
 1993-AMD releases first competing chip:
Am486
 1994-AMD improves chip with Am486DX
 Am486DX processes up to 100MHz

9
 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
-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- 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 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
 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 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
-AMD’s 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 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 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 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.
 Chipset

 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
 Few Popular Motherboards
using the KT400
 Gigabyte 7VAXP
 Abit AT7 MAX2
 ASUS A7V8X
 MSI KT4 Ultra
 Soyo KT400 Ultra Dragon
Performance Measurements AMD (using
KT400) vs. Pentium

Using Soyo’s 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
The 860 Chipset
 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 (cont’d)
 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 (cont’d)
 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 Intel’s Quad bus pumping

technology

 Price conscientious
 Professional Opinion
 After serious consideration to:
 Chip performance
 Reliability
 Some research
 $50 from Intel’s PR

 We conclude that the

860 chipset is the best chipset within this Presentation

Thank You