Processor market history

Processor market history
Early AMD 8080 Processor (AMD AM9080ADC / C8080A), 1977
AMD D8086.
See also: List of AMD microprocessors
[edit] IBM PC and the x86 architecture
Main articles: Am286, Am386, Am486, and Am5x86

In February 1982, AMD signed a contract with Intel, becoming a licensed second-source manufacturer of 8086 and 8088 processors. IBM wanted to use the Intel 8088 in its IBM PC, but IBM's policy at the time was to require at least two sources for its chips. AMD later produced the Am286 under the same arrangement, but Intel canceled the agreement in 1986 and refused to convey technical details of the i386 part. AMD challenged Intel's decision to cancel the agreement and won in arbitration, but Intel disputed this decision. A long legal dispute followed, ending in 1994 when the Supreme Court of California sided with AMD. Subsequent legal disputes centered on whether AMD had legal rights to use derivatives of Intel's microcode. In the face of uncertainty, AMD was forced to develop "clean room" versions of Intel code.

In 1991, AMD released the Am386, its clone of the Intel 386 processor. It took less than a year for the company to sell a million units. Later, the Am486 was used by a number of large original equipment manufacturers, including Compaq, and proved popular. Another Am486-based product, the Am5x86, continued AMD's success as a low-price alternative. However, as product cycles shortened in the PC industry, the process of reverse engineering Intel's products became an ever less viable strategy for AMD.
[edit] K5, K6, Athlon, Duron, and Sempron
Main articles: AMD K5, AMD K6, Athlon, Duron, and Sempron

AMD's first in-house x86 processor was the K5 which was launched in 1996.[6] The "K" was a reference to "Kryptonite", which from comic book lore, was the only substance (radioactive pieces of his home planet) which could harm Superman, a clear reference to Intel, which dominated in the market at the time, as "Superman".[7]

In 1996, AMD purchased NexGen specifically for the rights to their Nx series of x86-compatible processors. AMD gave the NexGen design team their own building, left them alone, and gave them time and money to rework the Nx686. The result was the K6 processor, introduced in 1997. Although the K6 was based on Socket 7, variants such as K6-2/450 were faster than Intel's Pentium II.

The K7 was AMD's seventh generation x86 processor, making its debut on June 23, 1999, under the brand name Athlon. Unlike previous AMD processors, it could not be used on the same motherboards as Intels' due to licensing issues surrounding Intel's Slot 1 connector. AMD's Slot A, referenced to the Alpha processor bus.) The Duron was a lower cost and limited version of the Athlon (64KB instead of 256KB L2 cache) in a 262-pin socketed PGA or soldered directly on to the motherboard. Sempron was released as a lower cost Athlon XP as socket 754 PGA and migrated upward to AM2 after the Athlon 64.

On October 9, 2001 the Athlon XP was released, followed by the Athlon XP with 512KB L2 Cache on February 10, 2003.[8]
[edit] Athlon 64, Opteron and Phenom
Main articles: Athlon 64, Opteron, and Phenom (processor)

The K8 was a major revision of the K7 architecture, with the most notable features being the addition of a 64-bit extension to the x86 instruction set (officially called AMD64), the incorporation of an on-chip memory controller, and the implementation of an extremely high performance point-to-point interconnect called HyperTransport, as part of the Direct Connect Architecture. The technology was initially launched as the Opteron server-oriented processor.[9] Shortly thereafter it was incorporated into a product for desktop PCs, branded Athlon 64.[10]

AMD released the first dual core Opteron, an x86-based server CPU, on April 21, 2005.[11] The first desktop-based dual core processor family—the Athlon 64 X2—came a month later.[12] In early May 2007, AMD had abandoned the string "64" in its dual-core desktop product branding, becoming Athlon X2, downplaying the significance of 64-bit computing in its processors while upcoming updates involved some of the improvements to the microarchitecture, and a shift of target market from mainstream desktop systems to value dual-core desktop systems. AMD has also started to release dual-core Sempron processors in early 2008 exclusively in China, branded as Sempron 2000 series, with lower HyperTransport speed and smaller L2 cache, thus the firm completes its dual-core product portfolio for each market segment.

The latest AMD microprocessor architecture, known as K10, became the successor to the K8 microarchitecture. The first processors released on this architecture were introduced on September 10, 2007 consisting of nine quad-core Third Generation Opteron processors. This was followed by the Phenom processor for desktop. K10 processors came in dual, triple-core,[13] and quad-core versions with all cores on one single die. A new platform codename "Spider" was released utilising the new Phenom processor as well as an R770 GPU and a 790 GX/FX chipset from the AMD 700 chipset series. This was built at 65nm, and hence uncompetitive with Intel who already progressed to the smaller and more power efficient 45nm node.

In January 2009 AMD released a new processor line dubbed Phenom II, a refresh of the original Phenom built using the 45 nm process. Along with this came a new platform codename "Dragon" which utilised a new Phenom II processor, an ATI R770 GPU from the R700 GPU family, as well as a 790 GX/FX chipset from the AMD 700 chipset series.This came in a dual, tri and quad core variant, all using the same die with cores disabled for the tri and dual core versions. This resolved issues that the original Phenom had including low clock speed, a small L3 cache and a Cool'n'Quiet bug that decreased performance. This was price and performance competitive with Intel's mid to high range Core 2 Quads. The processor also enhanced the Phenom's memory controller, allowing it to use DDR3 in a new native socket AM3, while maintaining backwards compatibility with AM2+, the socket used for the Phenom, and allowing the use of the DDR2 memory that was used with the platform. In 2010 a new Phenom II hexa-core processor codenamed "Thuban" will be released. This will be a totally new die based on the hexa-core "Istanbul" Opteron processor. This will be part of AMD's new Enthusiast platform codenamed ”Leo" utilising a new Phenom II processor, a new chipset from the AMD 800 chipset series and an ATI "Cypress" GPU from the Evergreen (GPU family) GPU series.

The Magny Cours and Lisbon server parts will be released in 2010. The Magny Cours part will come in 8 to 12 cores and the Lisbon part will come in 4 and 6 core parts. Magny Cours is focused on performance while the Lisbon part is focused on high performance per watt. Magny Cours is an MCM (Multi-Chip Module) with two hexa-core "Istanbul" Opteron parts. This will use a new G34 socket for dual and quad socket processors and thus will be marketed as Opteron 61xx series processors. Lisbon uses C32 socket certified for dual socket use or single socket use only and thus will be marketed as Opteron 41xx processors. Both will be built on a 45 nm SOI process.
[edit] Fusion
Main articles: AMD Fusion, Bulldozer (processor), and Bobcat (processor)

After the merger between AMD and ATI, an initiative codenamed Fusion was announced that will merge a CPU and GPU on some of their entry level chips, including a minimum 16 lane PCI Express link to accommodate external PCI Express peripherals, thereby eliminating the requirement of a northbridge chip completely from the motherboard. The initiative will see some of the processing originally done on the CPU (e.g. Floating Point Unit operations) onto the GPU, which is better optimized for calculations such as Floating Point Unit calculations. This is referred to by AMD as an Application Processing Unit (APU).[14] AMD will move to a modular design methodology named "M-SPACE", where two new processor cores, codenamed "Bulldozer" and "Bobcat" will be released in the 2011 timeframe.

While very little preliminary information exists even in AMD's Technology Analyst Day 2007, both cores are to be built from the ground up. The Bulldozer core focused on 10 watt to 100 watt products, with optimizations for performance-per-watt ratios and HPC applications and includes newly announced XOP, FMA4 and CVT16 instructions,[15] while the Bobcat core will focus on 1 watt to 10 watt products, given that the core is a simplified x86 core to reduce power draw. Both of the cores will be able to incorporate full DirectX compatible GPU core(s) under the Fusion label, or as standalone products as a general purpose CPU.

Llano is to be the first APU to be released, targeted at the mainstream market.[14] This will incorporate a CPU and GPU on the same die, as well as the Northbridge functions, and labeled on AMD's new timeline as using socket "AM3r2" with DDR3 memory. This will, however, not be based on the new bulldozer core and will in fact be similar to the current Phenom II "Deneb" processor serving as AMD's high-end processor until the release of the new 32 nm parts.

Bulldozer is revealed to be two integer cores capable of processing integers and one floating point unit (FPU). This will be seen by the OS as two cores and all of AMD's new 2011, 32 nm high-end desktop and server parts will be built on it, including Zambezi and Orochi for the desktop and Interlagos and Valencia for the server market.