AMD gambles on power chip for PCs

By Matthew Fordahl
Associated Press

SUNNYVALE, Calif. — For much of its 33-year history, Advanced Micro Devices Inc. prospered by making cheaper, sometimes faster versions of microprocessors pioneered by Intel Corp.

Now AMD is planning its biggest launch ever — and it's no Intel knockoff. The new processors share some of the elements found in powerful servers, but will also target personal computers.

It's a big financial and technological gamble for the world's No. 2 microprocessor maker.

So far, AMD has failed to make much headway in the server market and has been struggling more than usual lately getting into personal computers because of stiff competition and weak demand.

If it succeeds with the new chips, developed not coincidentally under the code name Hammer, AMD could become the microprocessor industry's powerhouse, setting the pace for computing for years to come.

But if AMD stumbles, Hammer will join a growing list of powerful chips nobody wants.

"We've established something that still needs to prove itself by getting into the market and succeeding," said Fred Weber, chief technology officer of AMD's Computation Products Group.

An Athlon-branded desktop version is scheduled for release early next year, several months late because of production delays. Chips for servers, branded Opteron, will follow later in 2003.

Hammer chips process data in 64-bit chunks rather than 32-bit chunks as is the case with today's Intel Pentium and AMD Athlon chips. Currently, only high-end servers and workstations use 64-bit processors.

The increase in the number of bits is similar to widening a freeway, allowing a higher volume of data "traffic" inside the processor and to memory.

Still, a computer's operating system and other programs must be optimized to take advantage of a 64-bit processor.

But unlike today's 64-bit chips, the Hammer chips speak the same language — the x86 instruction set — as today's 32-bit chips as well as yesterday's 16-bit and 8-bit chips.

"People want to be able to run their existing code," Weber said. "There are a lot of applications that don't need to move to 64 bits ever."

Intel's 64-bit offering, Itanium, abandoned the x86 instruction set in favor of Explicitly Parallel Instruction Computing. Intel says it was designed for high-end computing needs.

Though Itanium can run 32-bit code, it loses performance.

AMD maintains that its Hammer technology will give users more options, particularly for businesses that want to run 64-bit programs alongside existing 32-bit software without side-effects.

But while big businesses have shown a need for such powerful chips with resource-intensive simulation and database programs, it's not so clear ordinary consumers need them.