| AMD Athlon K7 550MHz Slot A MicroprocessorProduct DetailsKey architectural features of the AMD Athlon™ processor include:
The industry's first nine-issue superpipelined, superscalar x86
processor microarchitecture designed for high clock frequencies:
- Multiple parallel x86 instruction decoders
- Three out-of-order, superscalar, fully pipelined floating
point execution units, which execute all x87 (floating point),
MMX and 3DNow! instructions
- Three out-of-order, superscalar, pipelined integer units
- Three out-of-order, superscalar, pipelined address calculation
units
- 72-entry instruction control unit
- Advanced dynamic branch prediction
Enhanced 3DNow!™ technology for leading-edge 3D performance
- 21 original 3DNow! instructions-the first technology enabling
superscalar SIMD
- 19 new instructions to enable improved integer math calculations
for speech or video encoding and improved data movement for
Internet plug-ins and other streaming applications
- 5 new DSP instructions to improve soft modem, soft ADSL, Dolby
Digital surround sound, and MP3 applications
- Compatible with Windows 98, Windows 95, and Windows NT 4.x
without software patches
200-MHz AMD Athlon system bus (scalable beyond 400 MHz) enabling
leading-edge system bandwidth for data movement-intensive applications
- Source synchronous clocking (clock forwarding) technology
- Support for 8-bit ECC for data bus integrity
- Peak bandwidth of 1.6 to 3.2 GB/s
- Multiprocessing support: point-to-point topology, with number
of processors in SMP systems determined by chipset implementation
- Support for 24 outstanding transactions per processor
High-performance cache architecture featuring an integrated 128KB
L1 cache and a programmable, high-speed backside L2 cache interface
Slot A infrastructure design based on optimized, high-performance
platforms
- Available in processor cartridge with mechanical dimensions
comparable to Pentium® III
- Leverages existing physical/mechanical Slot 1 PC infrastructure,
including mechanical connector, but with different bus protocols
and electrical definitions
- Electrical interface compatible with 200-MHz AMD Athlon system
bus, based on Alpha EV6 bus protocol
- Supported by a full line of optimized Slot A infrastructure
solutions (chipsets, motherboards, BIOS)
Die size: approximately 22 million transistors on 184 mm2 die
on 0.25-micron process technology
Manufactured using AMD's state-of-the-art 0.25-micron, six-layer-metal
process technology at AMD's Fab 25 wafer fabrication facility |
