AMD's Multiprocessing Platforms Validated for Mental Ray Rendering Software.

Business Editors & High-Tech Writers

SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 19, 2001

Creators of Realistic High-Resolution Images Can Now Take

Advantage of Powerful AMD Athlon(tm) MP Processor-Based

Workstations and Servers

AMD (NYSE:AMD) today announced that mental images(R) GmbH & Co. KG, a recognized leader in rendering and modeling software technology, has validated and certified the AMD Athlon(tm) MP processor for its software.

Mental images' customers include major original software developers as well as select key industrial end-users. Mental ray(R) users include most of the leading visual effects and digital film studios, game development companies, and companies in the automotive and aerospace industries.

Starting with mental ray version 3.0, mental images will support software designed with this rendering technology in AMD Athlon MP processor-based workstation and server platforms. AMD provided AMD Athlon MP processor-based systems to mental images' development and quality assurance teams to help ensure reliability, compatibility and stability.

"AMD and mental images worked hand-in-hand to test, evaluate and provide leading visual computing solutions that enhance the performance and productivity for segments such as Digital Content Creation (DCC) and CAD/CAM markets," said Tom-Michael Thamm, director Product Development of mental images. "We are pleased with this new effort as it will help ensure that both users and software vendors receive a positive customer experience and to ensure that applications built using mental ray technology run smoothly and reliably on AMD processor-based computers around the world."

"This validation by mental images further establishes AMD's presence in the DCC and CAD/CAM markets," said Richard Heye, vice president of Platform Engineering & Infrastructure for AMD's Computation Products Group. "The photorealistic mental ray rendering software and the high-performance AMD Athlon MP processor offer the stability, reliability and performance that creative professionals demand."

Based on the state-of-the-art AMD Athlon MP processor, AMD's multiprocessing platform supports Double Data Rate (DDR) memory technology and incorporates AMD's latest innovation, Smart MP technology. Smart MP technology enables the combined power of the processor and chipset to deliver better overall performance on widely available, x86-based, dual-processor platforms.

About the AMD Athlon(tm) MP Processor

The AMD Athlon MP processor is a seventh-generation x86 processor designed for high-performance multiprocessing servers and workstations. A key advantage of AMD's multiprocessing platform is Smart MP technology, which greatly enhances overall platform performance by increasing data movement between the two CPUs, chipset and memory system. Smart MP technology features dual point-to-point, high-speed 266MHz system buses with Error Correcting Code (ECC) support designed to provide up to 2.1GB per second per CPU of bus bandwidth in a dual-processor system. Smart MP technology also has an optimized Modified Owner Exclusive Shared Invalid (MOESI) cache coherency protocol that manages data and memory traffic in a multiprocessing environment.

The AMD Athlon MP processor features the patented QuantiSpeed(tm) architecture, which includes a high performance full-speed cache with hardware data pre-fetch, a fully pipelined superscalar floating point engine, and an exclusive L2 Translation Look-aside Buffer (TLB). The processor also incorporates 3DNow!(tm) Professional technology, which has 51 new instructions that extend AMD's 3DNow! technology, enabling smoother, richer and more lifelike images, more precise digital audio and an enriched Internet experience.

The AMD Athlon MP processor is compatible with AMD's stable Socket A infrastructure, and supports DDR memory technology.

About AMD

AMD is a global supplier of integrated circuits for the personal and networked computer and communications markets with manufacturing facilities in the United States, Europe, Japan and Asia. AMD, a Fortune 500 and Standard & Poor's 500 company, produces microprocessors, flash memory devices, and support circuitry for communications and networking applications. Founded in 1969 and based in Sunnyvale, Calif., AMD had revenues of $4.6 billion in 2000. (NYSE:AMD).

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