News
AMD Details Chipset for Hammer Processor
- By Scott Bekker
- February 21, 2002
AMD on Thursday released details about its series of chipsets for its 64-bit Hammer processors.
The chipsets, called the AMD-8000 series, will be available in the fourth quarter of this year, AMD says. They will be used in servers, workstations and desktops.
AMD's strategy on 64-bit computing differs from Intel Corp.'s in that AMD intends to deliver strong performance on 32-bit applications as well as 64-bit applications with its next-generation Hammer processor. Both 32-bit and 64-bit applications on Hammer will use the x86 instruction set.
Intel's approach with Itanium has been to offer an emulation environment for 32-bit applications when necessary, but with diminished performance. Intel has focused its efforts, instead, on providing new capabilities with Itanium through a new instruction set for 64-bit computing.
The major feature of the AMD-8000 series will be the use of HyperTransport technology in an I/O hub, a PCI-X tunnel and a graphics tunnel.
AMD describes the HyperTransport technology as a way to reduce the number of buses in a system while providing high-performance through point-to-point links for integrated circuits.
About the Author
Scott Bekker is editor in chief of Redmond Channel Partner magazine.