AMD K6

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Background

The AMD K6 architecture.

The AMD K6 is a superscalar Pentium-class microprocessor, manufactured by AMD, which superseded the K5. It was co-developed by Vinod Dham, lead designer of the Intel P5 microarchitecture. The AMD K6 is based on the Nx686 microprocessor that NexGen was designing when it was acquired by AMD. Despite the name implying a design evolving from the K5, it is in fact a totally different design that was created by the NexGen team and adapted after the AMD purchase. The K6 processor included a feedback dynamic instruction reordering mechanism, MMX instructions, and a floating-point unit (FPU). It was also made pin-compatible with Intel's Pentium, enabling it to be used in the widely available "Socket 7"-based motherboards. Like the Nx686 and Nx586 before it, the K6 translated the Pentium compatible x86 instruction set to RISC-like micro-instructions. A later variation of the K6 CPU, K6-2, added floating point-based SIMD instructions, called 3DNow!. microsoft trackball mouse

The K6 was originally launched in April 1997, running at speeds of 166 and 200 MHz. It was followed by a 233 MHz version later in 1997. Initially, the AMD K6 processors used a Pentium II-based performance rating (PR2) to designate their speed. The PR2 rating was dropped because the rated frequency of the processor was the same as the real frequency. The release of the 266 MHz version of this chip was not until the second quarter of 1998 when AMD was able to move to the 0.25 micrometre manufacturing process. The lower voltage and higher multiplier of the K6-266 meant that it was not 100% compatible with some Socket 7 motherboards, similar to the later K6-2 processors. The final iteration of the K6 design was released in May 1998 running at 300 MHz. ergonomic computer mouse

Many viewed the K6 and the acquisition of NexGen as the moment that AMD was put back into the Intel compatible processor market. The actual K6 AMD had been designing was anemic compared to NexGen's design. With the buyout of NexGen, AMD was able to come back into the game with a processor that could perform competitively with Intel's Pentium II. rechargeable wireless mouse

Models

Original K6 (Model 6)

K6 "Little Foot" (Model 7)

K6 (Model 6)

8.8 million transistors in 350 nm

L1-Cache: 32 + 32 KB (Data + Instructions)

MMX

Socket 7

Front side bus: 66 MHz

First release: April 2, 1997

VCore: 2.9 V (166/200) 3.2/3.3 V (233)

Clockrate: 166, 200, 233 MHz

K6 "Little Foot" (Model 7)

CPUID: Family 5, Model 7, Stepping 0

8.8 million transistors in 250 nm

L1-Cache: 32 + 32 KB (Data + Instructions)

MMX

Socket 7

Front side bus: 66 MHz

First release: January 6, 1998

VCore: 2.2 V

Clockrate: 200, 233, 266, 300 MHz

References

Further reading

Gwennap, Linley (31 March 1997). "K6 Is World's Fastest x86 Chip". Microprocessor Report.

Slater, Michael (28 October 1998). "K6 to Boost AMD's Position in 1997". Microprocessor Report.

External links

AMD: Mobile AMD-K6 Processor

Intel's Enemy No. 1: The AMD K6 CPU

AMD K6, first of an impressive dynasty

Technical overview of the AMD-K6 series

Pictures of AMD-K6 chips at CPUShack.com

AMD K6 technical specifications

technical dissection of the 6th generation x86 CPUs

v  d  e

AMD processors

Discontinued

Am2900  Am29000  Am9080  Am286  Am386  Am486  Am5x86  K5  K6  K6-2  K6-III  Duron  Athlon  Mobile Athlon 64  Alchemy

Current

Geode  Sempron  Athlon 64 (Athlon Neo)  Athlon X2  Phenom (Phenom II)  Athlon II   Turion  Opteron

Future

Fusion (Bulldozer  Bobcat)

Microarchitectures

K7  K8  K9  K10

Lists

Am2900  Duron  Athlon  Athlon XP  Sempron  Athlon 64  Athlon X2  Phenom  Turion  Opteron  Future Microprocessors

Instruction sets

3DNow!  SSE4a  XOP  FMA4  CVT16

Categories: 1997 introductions | Advanced Micro Devices x86 microprocessorsHidden categories: Wikipedia articles incorporating text from FOLDOC | Articles lacking in-text citations from February 2008 | All articles lacking in-text citations