• Recommend:
• 0 Comments

AMD Announces 750-MHz Athlon Chip

Compaq, IBM, and CyberMax offer systems with processor that runs neck and neck with Intel's best

By Tom Mainelli, PCWorld   

Vying for the hearts of speed-crazed computer buyers this holiday season, Compaq, IBM, and CyberMax will immediately offer 750-MHz Athlon systems, according to AMD executives.

The accelerated release reflects how the processor's design lets AMD increase the Athlon's clock speeds rapidly, says Nathan Brookwood, processor analyst for Insight 64. The speed jumps will help the company in its "performance marketing wars" with Intel, he says.

"We've been ahead of the curve all along," says AMD spokesperson Ward Tisdale. After all, AMD introduced a 650-MHz chip at Athlons debut instead of the expected 600-MHz chip.

Testing It Out

According to AMD, in its own benchmark tests the Athlon-750 showed superior or equivalent performance to Intels Pentium III-733 in a handful of commercial and consumer applications, as well as on multimedia tests.

However, PC World's tests of a 750-MHz Athlon reference machine showed very little performance difference between it and a similarly configured 733-MHz Intel Pentium III. The Athlon system scored 305 on the PC WorldBench 98 test, whereas the Intel-based system scored a 309. That's essentially a tie.

The 750-MHz Athlons WorldBench 98 score was better than that of 700-MHz Athlons, however. For example, four 700-MHz Athlon systems averaged a score of 288 on PC WorldBench 98. The 750-MHz systems average score is 6 percent higher. And the Athlon-750 system performed PC Worlds multitasking test in an impressive 272 seconds, compared with 323 seconds for 700-MHz systems. The new chip also did well on graphics and floating-point tests.

In the end, what's the difference between a few megahertz? It depends who you are, Brookwood says.

"Both Intels and AMD's high-end processors are real fast," Brookwood says. The average person won't be able to tell the difference between a 733-MHz and 750-MHz processor. But such a speed increase is important to users who run programs that strain today's hardware. Players of high-end games are one group that may take advantage of the processor's muscle.

"Plus, there's bragging rights," Brookwood adds.

Future Chips

The headroom built into the Athlon's design should let AMD produce 800-MHz and 900-MHz chips very early next year, according to Brookwood.

Tisdale will say only that AMDs chairman has publicly stated the company will release an 800-MHz chip in the first half of the year.

Brookwood says when AMD switches its Athlon production from the current 0.18 aluminum process to 0.18 copper in the second quarter of next year, the chip should reach the 1 gigahertz range "up to six months ahead of Intel." Tisdale again says only that it expects to hit that speed sometime next year.

For now the company is focusing on getting the 750-MHz Athlon out to customers. The chips are available in volume, Tisdale says, and he expects vendors to have systems using the chip ready soon for holiday sales.