TechWeb: AMD Lays Out 2001 Plans To Analysts

[ Thanks to mike for this link.
]

“The Athlon and Duron will give way to the Palomino and Morgan
in 2001, improved Athlon cores with 256 Kbytes and 64 Kbytes of
on-chip cache, respectively. Both processors will feature an
improved Athlon core with lower power and microarchitectural
improvements.”

“But the Palomino will also reach only 1.5 GHz in the second
quarter of 2001, about 500 MHz below Intel’s plans for the Pentium
4. According to AMD’s own tests, that won’t matter: a 1.2-GHz
Athlon will outperform the Pentium 4 at 1.5 GHz in most benchmarks,
according to Dirk Meyer, vice president of engineering at AMD’s
computational products group.”

“AMD also looks forward to bringing the 64-bit microprocessor
generation to the desktop. A previously undisclosed version of
AMD’s 64-bit Hammer chip, Clawhammer, will begin sampling at the
end of 2001 for desktops and server appliances and enter production
in the first quarter of 2002. Sledgehammer, a 4- and 8-way
capable part for servers, will sample in the first quarter of 2002
and ship a quarter later.

“More importantly, AMD executives said the 0.13-micron
Clawhammer will be smaller than 100 sq. mm, smaller and arguably
cheaper than the company’s existing Duron low-end PC
microprocessor. … The performance of the Hammer generation
will also be improved by AMD’s move to a silicon-on-insulator (SOI)
process, which can cut the capacitance of the chip.
…power can either be cut by 30 percent or performance
increased by the same amount…”

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