Talk:AMD/Archive 1

This is Archive 1, which cover articles started in 2003-2004.

(No Prior Category)

Don't forget Thunderbird. More information about new AMD64-cores are needed (Prosessor-roadmap in AMD's page)

There might be quite a bit of redundancy going on here, with both this article, the Athlon article, and the AMD64 describing the various processors in detail, where the Athlon article focuses on their processor series, and the AMD64 article focuses on the 64-bit "Hammer" series.

So, for example, to update this article with the release of Athlon 64 and Athlon FX, you need to update all three articles. It's understandable both the Athlon and AMD64 will need to, but the actual company article...?

My point is -- shouldn't this one mostly just cover the company profile of Advanced Micro Devices, with Related Links to Athlon and AMD64, and possibly other closely related articles? I'm asking before doing anything, because this could lead to some major changes in this article. (mostly abstractions, and the most detailed discussion of Athlon in particular perhaps being that it's one of their most well-known processor brands)

Jugalator 06:44, 29 Sep 2003 (UTC)

I agree completely, actually, but deciding how to break out that sort of thing may be difficult. Perhaps a simple description of the company itself and a release timeline here, along with "Their most recent offerings have been the Athlon and the AMD64" with those properly Wikified . . . Phil Bordelon 02:40, 1 Oct 2003 (UTC)

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The AMD K5 and K6-x processors were not clones of the Intel Pentium, nor did they lack support for L2 cache. They were hybrid x86-RISC designs very much like the Athlon and Pentium 4 of today. Their only common ground with the Intel fifth-generation CPUs was the socket they went into. The K5, K6 and K6-2 all had their L2 cache on the motherboard, same as the Pentium, and the K6-III had 256K on the chip itself.

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Should this page mention the thermal and mechanical problems that seemed to plague early versions of the Athlon? The infamous videotape on Tomshardware showing smoke curling up within seconds from Athlons when their heatsinks were removed did much to scare users away from AMD and back to Intel. And AMD certainly wasn't helped by the mechanically fragile and difficult-to-install Athlon package when Intel had already designed its Pentium 4 with a large and rugged copper heat sink and on-chip automatic thermal protection.

Phil Karn 28 Feb 2004

I see no reason why not. I assume current chips don't do this? - David Gerard 17:41, Feb 28, 2004 (UTC)

Soon after Tom Pabst released this video, AMD released one that showed the exact opposite on their thunderbird parts. A demo person was able to run the latest Quake game for 10 minutes without a fan or heatsink on an Athlon. The truth is that the problems actually got a lot worse with the Athlon XP, where the CPUs could barely last a minute without a heatsink and functioning fan and would literally "fry". The reason this became a big issue was at the instigation of Intel, because while their contemporary P4 processor used roughly the same, and sometimes even more power, but they had a solution to the overheating problem. The P4 would self-detect the overheating condition and drop its clock rate precipitously to keep it from burning itself alive. I'm not sure if AMD ever did add in on-chip technology to do this, but very soon afterwards motherboards started adding technology that did this. So the Virtual Gorilla keeps marching on ... Qed 14:00, 14 January 2006 (UTC)

You can't be serious. No microprocessor in this generation from either Intel or AMD will survive without a heatsink. In fact, Intel's P4 often runs hotter than AMD offerings. So yes, if you weren't being sarcastic, current chips will all be destroyed within moments of removing the heat sink.

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The AMD Elan SC520 chips (which represent the entire Elan line), as well as the Am186 Series get no mention here.

Stilroc

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It would be nice to have some more info about the -company- instead of just it's products.. ---- Noone