3DNow!™ AMD Next Generation Athlon Interview

Introduction

A couple weeks ago AMD indirectly announced plans to release several new processors based on the Athlon core. These processors were code-named the Thunderbird, Spitfire, and Mustang. Additionally, AMD also disclosed plans for a new motherboard architecture, Socket A. After hearing this shocking news, I emailed their public relations guy, Drew Prairie. He was very nice to answer all of my questions, or at least to the best of his ability. My thanx go out to Drew for his patience, support, and just being an all around good guy.

Thunderbird Questions

Will the Thunderbird introduce any new expansions to the 3DNow!™ instruction set? If so, what?
We haven't announced any plans to expand on the 3DNow! instruction set. We did enhance the 3DNow! instructions when we introduced the AMD Athlon processor (extensions to accelerate integer and DSP functions). We have also said that we plan to introduce TFP (Technical Floating Point) instructions in Sledgehammer (our next generation processor due in 2001). TFP is planned to do for extended precision floating point calculations what 3DNow! did for single precision floating point operations.

What is the expected price range for Thunderbird PCs in the consumer market?
There is no way to answer that since the product introduction isn't until Q2 of next year. Plus, you have to remember that all of the code names we disclosed are for processor cores --- not for products. So, for example we won't introduce an Athlon Thunderbird processor, but you will see the Thunderbird core used within the Athlon brand names (ie AMD Athlon, Athlon Professional, etc).

Will there be any price difference between the Slot A and Socket A versions of this processor?
If you are comparing Thunderbird with Spitfire, then the answer if yes. Spitfire is targeted at moving the AMD Athlon to the value space, and it will be only available in a socketed form. Thunderbird is capable of being introduced in both a cartridge and a slot, but we haven't given out any pricing details yet. Got to wait a little while.

At what clockspeed will the Thunderbird debut at?
We plan for Thunderbird to be introduced at frequencies that are competitive with other x86 processors available at the time (hey, I'm a PR guy).

Will the Thunderbird be compatible with today's current Slot A motherboards (provided the motherboard manufactures offer a BIOS update)?
We haven't disclosed any details on any of the specifics on the Thunderbird core and whether current infrastructure products will support it. Obviously, we don't want to abandon all of the Slot A owners out there who have already put down their hard earned money to buy the world's fastest processor....

At what speed will the secondary cache run on the Thunderbird?
Thunderbird will use an on-die, full-speed L2 cache --- so whatever speed the core operates at will be the speed of the L2.

What will be the Thunderbird's bus speed, 66MHz, 100MHz, or 133MHz?
Whoa, who said anything about going backwards? The AMD Athlon is already at a 200Mhz bus speed, and we have said that our next-generation chipset (due during 2H00) will support bus speeds of 266Mhz.

Spitfire Questions

Will the Spitfire introduce any new expansions to the 3DNow!™ instruction set? If so, what?
See my response above regarding Thunderbird.

Is the Spitfire meant to be AMD's weapon in the PC sub-$1000 market?
Spitfire is targeted at the value PC space. Low-cost, high-performance.

What is the Spitfire target competition, the Intel Celeron or the Intel Pentium III E FC-PGA?
Can't really speculate on where our unannounced product will compete vs. Intel's unannounced products. Spitfire is the performance/value PC Athlon processor, and we plan for it to offer a good level of price/performance versus whatever Intel is offering in the similar space.

Will the Spitfire be compatible with today's current Slot A motherboards (provided the motherboard manufactures offer a BIOS update)?
Spitfire is planned to only be available in a Socket A configuration. Sorry, no details have been given out on the specifics of Socket A. Since Spitfire will be a 7th generation CPU with 7th generation features, it will NOT be compatible with any of the currently available (read lower performing) slots. Don't want to handicap the CPU by making it dependent on a lower performing infrastructure.

What will be the Spitfire's bus speed, 66MHz, 100MHz, or 133MHz?
See above re: Thunderbird. We haven't disclosed that level of detail yet. Q2 will be here soon enough and I'll be able to spill all the beans at that time.

At what clockspeed will the Spitfire debut at?
We haven't given out that level of detail yet. Like I said with Thunderbird, we plan to offer a Spitfire-based AMD Athlon product that operates at competitive frequencies.

Will Spitfire be available in clockspeeds of 1Gz and beyond?
We haven't disclosed any clockspeeds for our Spitfire-based product. No intro speeds, and definitely no upper limits on the frequency.

Mustang Questions

Will the Mustang introduce any new expansions to the 3DNow!™ instruction set? If so, what?
I'm starting to sound like a broken record, but we just haven't gotten into that level of detail with any of these future cores -- especially since a Mustang-based product isn't planned until 2H00.

What is the expected price range for Mustang PCs in the server market?
It is way too far in the future to provide information this detailed. Expect competitive pricing. Unlike some companies, if you look at our prices I think you will agree we don't charge exorbitant prices just because we may have the fastest or highest performing processor on the block. Competition is good. :-)

Will their be any low-cost versions of the Mustang similar to the Spitfire?
There are actually two versions of the Mustang core planned, one for the high-end of the market and one for the value/performance space.

Will the Mustang be compatible with today's current Slot A motherboards (provided the motherboard manufactures offer a BIOS update)?
See my answer regarding Spitfire and Thunderbird.

Socket A Questions

What advantages will a Socket A motherboard/system have over a Slot A?
Socketed infrastructure is cheaper, socketed parts are cheaper (especially since there is no L2 SRAM) and the form factor is smaller --- no large cartridge eating space inside the case. That said, there will be 1+million Slot A processors out there before the first Socket A part is out there, and we have no plans to abandon Slot A any time in the future. For a lot of our customers, maintaining a Slot infrastructure makes sense. We are all about working with our partners to make sure we offer the competitive products they require in the form factors they require.

Why did AMD decide on developing Socket A rather than use Socket370?
See my answer above about not wanting to handicap a 7th generation processor with a sixth generation bus interface.

Will AMD be developing a chipset for Socket A motherboards?
We plan to continue developing chipsets internally and working with our infrastructure partners to also enable chipsets. Our plan is to introduce AMD chipsets whenever there is a major change to the platform (addition of DDR memory for example).

Do any other companies plan on developing their own chipsets for Socket A, such as SiS, VIA, and Acer Labs?
Sorry, can't speak for any of those companies. You are going to have to talk with them. Obviously, all of those companies have announced plans to offer Athlon chipsets...

Have any motherboard manufacturers signed on yet to develop Socket A motherboards, such as: FIC, MSI, BioStar, GigaByte, and ASUS?
You are going to have to talk to those companies about their future product plans. We are working with our partners to ensure the infrastructure is in place when we launch our first socketed Athlon parts. Kind of a major requirement. ;-)

What bus speeds will AMD's Socket A chipset support: 66MHz, 100MHz, 133MHz, 266MHz?
We haven't disclosed that level of detail yet. Again, Q200 will be here soon enough and I'll be able to tell you all about it. Till then...

Will AMD's Socket A chipset support AGP 4x?
Via's KX133 chipset already supports AGP4X, as will our next-generation chipset. As for the specifics on a socketed chipset, we haven't disclosed that level of detail. Again, we know we need to offer both a processor and a platform that is competitive with what is out there at the same time from the formidable folks in blue.