Processor Identification and specifications

Before we get into the group related topics we will show you the different processors. Their unique specifications and just how cool they truly are.

Slot A AMD Athlon Classic CPU

The First Generation of AMD Athlon CPU were truly amazing. The 1st generation were a 0.25-micron fabrication with a 512KB L2 cache system with the ½ divider. The core speed of the 1st generation were 500MHz, 550MHz 600MHz. 650MHz and 700MHz. The core of the CPU used a maximum of 1.6v as standard, which is pretty impressive for a 0.25 micron CPU. When the new 0.18-micron technology was introduced AMD based their 2nd generation Athlon Classic around with the 750, 800 and 850 being built on this process, the 2nd generation used a new L2 cache divider of 2/5. The cache was slowed cause when these CPU's were commissioned there were no SRAM modules at could stand the stress of over 400MHz so AMD started to slow the cache speed down, this intern gave the new Coppermine P3 the new edge since its L2 cache was built into the CPU die and ran at the CPU's full core speed. When AMD moved to faster Athlon Classics they used the same 0.18-micron process and further reduced the L2 cache speeds by implementing the 1/3 L2 cache divider. This new divider gave AMD the edge in the 1GHz war by announcing the 1GHz Athlon Classic 2 weeks before Intel announced the 1GHz Coppermine. The Slot A Athlon Classic was designed for the overclockers, even though AMD denies this they deliberately left a expansion port on the Athlon PCB to allow a multiplier override system called the Goldfinger. The power of the new AMD K7 family comes from its new FPU, a triple pipelined system. Intel Pentium 3 CPU's only use a single pipelined FPU, this gives the K7 family a advantage over the Pentium 3 range as the K7 family can execute 3x the amount of FPU calculations per clock cycle as an Intel system, while this is not the only feature that puts AMD ahead its certainly a big one as this was the main area what was holding AMD back from becoming a competitor rather than a alternative.