Athlon Thunderbird
AMD Athlon logo
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| Produced | From mid-1999 to 2005 |
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| Max. CPU clock rate | 500 MHz to 2.33 GHz |
| FSB speeds | 200 MT/s to 400 MT/s |
| Min. feature size | 0.25 µm to 0.13 µm |
| Instruction set | x86 |
| Socket(s) | |
| Predecessor | K6-III |
| Successor | K8 - Hammer |
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Athlon is the brand name applied to a series of x86-compatible microprocessors designed and manufactured by Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). The original Athlon (now called Athlon Classic) was the first seventh-generation x86 processor. The original Athlon was the first desktop processor to reach speeds of one gigahertz (GHz). AMD has continued using the Athlon name with the Athlon 64, an eighth-generation processor featuring x86-64 (later renamed AMD64) architecture, and the Athlon II. AMD also uses the Athlon name for some of its series of APUs targeting the Socket AM1 desktop SoC architecture.
The Athlon made its debut on June 23, 1999. Athlon comes from the Ancient Greek ἆθλον (athlon) meaning ″(sport) contest″, or "prize of a contest", or "place of a contest; arena".
AMD founder (and then-CEO) Jerry Sanders aggressively pursued strategic partnerships and engineering talent in the late 1990s, desiring to leverage the success AMD had gained in the PC market with the preceding AMD K6 line of processors. One major partnership announced in 1998 paired AMD with semiconductor giant Motorola to co-develop copper-based semiconductor technology, and resulted with the K7 project being the first commercial processor to utilize copper fabrication technology. In the announcement, Sanders referred to the partnership as creating a "virtual gorilla" that would enable AMD to compete with Intel on fabrication capacity while limiting AMD's financial outlay for new facilities.
The K7 design team was led by Dirk Meyer, who had worked as a lead engineer at DEC on multiple Alpha microprocessors during his employment at DEC. When DEC was sold to Compaq in 1998, the company discontinued Alpha processor development. Sanders approached many of the Alpha engineering staff as Compaq/DEC wound down their semiconductor business, and was able to bring in nearly all of the Alpha design team. The K7 engineering design team was thus now consisted of both the previously acquired NexGen K6 team (already including engineers such as Vinod Dham) and the nearly complete Alpha design team.
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