AMD Faces Hard Road With K7 Launch.By Dan JonesAdvanced Micro Devices Inc faces its toughest challenge yet with the introduction of the K7 processor - it has to persuade major motherboard Also called the "system board," it is the main printed circuit board in an electronic device, which contains sockets that accept additional boards. In a desktop computer, the motherboard contains the CPU, chipset, PCI bus slots, AGP slot, memory sockets and controller circuits for the and chipset A group of chips designed to work as a unit to perform a function. For example, a modem chipset contains all the primary circuits for transmitting and receiving. A PC chipset provides the electronic interfaces between all subsystems (see PC chipset for illustration). manufacturers to support its 'Slot A' chip-to-motherboard connection - not only that, but industry sources suggest that the company may be planning to introduce a new socket connection for the chip by the second half of this year. The AMD (Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, www.amd.com) A major manufacturer of semiconductor devices including x86-compatible CPUs, embedded processors, flash memories, programmable logic devices and networking chips. K7 could be launched on June 22, Jason Rice, a spokesperson at AMD, confirmed that the company will be making an announcement this month but refused to comment further. It will be available in 600MHz (MegaHertZ) One million cycles per second. It is used to measure the transmission speed of electronic devices, including channels, buses and the computer's internal clock. A one-megahertz clock (1 MHz) means some number of bits (16, 32, 64, etc. , 550MHz and 500MHz versions and, initially at least, use AMD's proprietary Slot A The motherboard receptacle for earlier Athlon CPU chips from AMD. It is physically similar to Slot 1, but has different electrical requirements. Later model Athlons use Socket A. See Athlon, Slot 1 and Socket A. connection. The chip will have a new microarchitecture and use an Alpha 2164-derived 200MHz bus. This is new territory for the company, Rice said that AMD would initially be producing motherboards to support the K7 but was in talks with motherboard manufacturers over the Slot A connection on their boards. The connection is mechanically identical to Intel Corp's Slot 1 but because its very different electrically AMD will have to deliver PCI (1) (Payment Card Industry) See PCI DSS. (2) (Peripheral Component Interconnect) The most widely used I/O bus (peripheral bus). , fibre channel and other system enhancement supports on the same schedule as Intel. The challenges that AMD faces gaining winning over chip infrastructure manufacturers could be compounded if it does roll out a new socket connection for the K7 later this year. Moving to a new socket could also alienate To voluntarily convey or transfer title to real property by gift, disposition by will or the laws of Descent and Distribution, or by sale. For example, a seller may alienate property by transferring to a buyer a parcel of the seller's land containing a house, in AMD's target market for the new processor, the corporate sector. Using different connections in consumer PCs, AMD's core market, is not such an issue, because consumers usually simply upgrade to a new PC. However, IT managers generally require corporate machines to have a lifecycle of 18 months, so need a stable platform for any system upgrades. If AMD introduces a socket connection version of the K7 with a higher clock speed later this year, corporate users who had bought an AMD-based PC, where the chip connected via Slot A, would need to upgrade the motherboard and could not simply 'drop' a new chip into the PC. Rice refused to comment on suggestions that AMD would be moving to a socket connection for the K7 later this year. |
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