AMD's new chip plays to gamers - Analysis

Rethink IT, Nov, 2003

AMD has trumped its Opteron 32-bit/64-bit hybrid chip announcement in the spring, with its Athlon version of the same technology for PCs and notebooks. The Opteron was lauded at its April launch by none other than IBM, aiming the chip at high performance computing. At the Athlon launch AMD mustered support from top names including Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Fujitsu and Packard Bell, the European PC maker.

AMD billed the lunch as the world's first and only Windows-compatible 64-bit PC processor, and told prospective customers to get ready for "a jaw-dropping PC experience".

The AMD Athlon 64 FX processor is targeted directly at compute intensive applications like video playing, editing and game rendering, but it can just run Windows XP applications faster too.

"Extreme PC enthusiasts and gamers have long been the drivers of the industry, shaping and influencing what new technology ultimately reaches mainstream computer users," said Dirk Meyer, senior vice president of AMD'S Computation Products Group. "We custom-made the AMD Athlon 64 FX processor for these power users. Now, they can spend more time playing, imagining and creating."

Epic Games was tempted to the podium too, in the form of founder Tim Sweeney, to declare that in the very near future, his company would amaze gamers with the technology.

For mobile computing, the AMD Athlon 64 processor for notebooks is designed for high performance computing and wireless connectivity. It features advanced power management from the AMD PowerNow technology for reduced power consumption and extended system battery life.

Computer manufacturer HP plans to ship systems in the fourth quarter of 2003, Fujitsu-Siemens and Packard Bell announced system availability for the AMD Athlon 64 processor, and were joined by more than 150 manufacturers and infrastructure partners worldwide.

More than 60 of these are manufacturers and system builders who plan to feature the AMD Athlon 64 FX processor and the AMD Athlon 64 processors for desktop and notebook computers. The AMD Athlon 64 processor is available in Model 3200 for desktop computing, priced at $417 in 1,000-unit quantities, and Model 3000 for notebook computing, priced $278 in 1,000-unit quantities. The AMD Athlon 64 FX processor is available in the FX-51 series, and is priced at $733 in 1,000-unit quantities.

Network Associates got a head start in antivirus on the new AMD 64-bit Athlon, by offering native support at the launch last month.

It has ported McAfee VirusScan Enterprise to the new chip claiming to be the first security company to offer antivirus desktop and file server system protection for any machines based on it.

At the launch, Microsoft made great play of the flexibility of the AMD Opteron and the Athlon 64-bit systems, when it lined up alongside the chipmaker to announce its own 64-bit edition of its XP operating system.

The system is out now in a beta release and is available to anyone on the Microsoft Developers Network, and is expected to enter full availability in the first half of 2004.

Microsoft twisted the knife into Intel by lingering on the fact that the AMD Opteron, for workstation and server applications, and the Athlon for PCs and notebooks, runs old 32-bit code as well as allowing 64bit applications the full power of the AMD chip. Intel 64-bit chips don't appear in this hybrid format.

Microsoft launched its Windows on Windows 64 (WOW64) technology, which will enable customers who currently have Windows XP-compatible 32-bit applications, to run them on the 64-bit operating system.

"We've heard from our customers that, until now, the inability to efficiently run 32-bit applications on 64-bit systems has been a major barrier to investing in 64-bit technologies," said Chris Jones, corporate vice president for the Windows Client Division at Microsoft in a clear jibe at Intel's decision to launch a 64-bit chip that was not backwards compatible.

Windows XP 64-bit Edition for 64-bit Extended Systems is designed for use on high-performance PCs. This means new customers will be able to extend beyond the 4Gb physical memory limit of 32-bit computing.

"Windows XP and AMD64 hold the promise of bringing 64-bit computing to a whole new set of computer users, delivering immersive, cinema-quality user experiences for gaming and working with digital media," said AMD's Meyer.

The Windows and AMD64 platform is expected to increase the speed of many operations, including engineering and scientific applications, and computer-aided design.