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With information fast becoming the defining competitive advantage, IT must continue to change the way its Internet-based enterprise is built. Internet-based information exchange is becoming increasingly common for industry-standard applications such as e-commerce, mail, ERP, and data warehousing. These applications are fueling tremendous growth of Intel-based servers. At the same time, the growing need for increased processor, memory and I/O performance, as well as the need for increased server availability, are driving demand for more robust, high-end Intel-based servers.

8-way Intel-based servers with the Intel® Pentium® III Xeon™ processor will help IT meet these requirements with new levels of performance, scalability, and availability-and unprecedented cost savings. These servers will be able to handle e-commerce, database, decision support, terminal server, and messaging server consolidation applications once entrusted to mainframes and RISC-based systems. 8-way Intel-based servers are ready for prime time, bringing new levels of power and economy to your world of real-time business information.

Enterprise-class Performance and Scalability
SHV 4-way Intel-based servers currently offer industry-leading performance at a fraction of the cost of proprietary RISC-based systems; this is expected to get even better with 8-way Intel-based servers. The price-performance advantages, together with scalable headroom for future growth, will make SHV 8-way Intel-based servers a new, central element to most enterprise architectures.

Additional Availability Features
8-way Intel-based servers offer robust availability with features such as redundant hot-swap peripherals, hot-plug PCI slots, memory bank and processor bus disabling, and IPMI-compliant manageability features. They provide high server uptime for your most demanding Internet-based enterprise application needs.

Operating System Flexibility
Intel-based systems can run a wide range of leading operating systems. This lets you standardize on a common hardware platform even while running different software for different areas of your business. Intel-based servers offer a stable, reliable platform for the Linux*, NetWare, Solaris*, UnixWare*, and Windows NT* operating systems.

Industry Support
Leading server OEMs and software vendors are lining up behind 8-way Intel-based servers. All the key enterprise applications you need are 8-way-compatible, with server sourcing from your favorite supplier.

Profusion Chipset
The Intel Profusion chipset, designed for the Intel Pentium II Xeon and the Pentium III Xeon processors, features a balanced CPU, memory, and I/O architecture that enables these new levels of performance. This chipset features:

 

8-Way Coming Your Way!
Intel's Profusion chipset for 8-way servers will provide a standards-based building block for high-end servers running business-critical and data-intensive applications. The Profusion chipset is expected to starting shipping in the second quarter of 1999, with leading server OEMs shipping shortly thereafter. So contact your favorite OEM to learn more about 8-way Intel-based servers with the Pentium III Xeon processor. It will change the way you architect your Internet-based enterprise information system.


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AMD Athlon™ Processor Product Brief

AMD Athlon(TM) -

The Fastest x86 Processor in the World Today

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The Most Powerful Multimedia Experience

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Tomorrow's Technology Today

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Powering the Next Generation in Computing Platforms

AMD Athlon™ Processor Overview

The AMD Athlon™ processor is the world's most powerful engine for x86 computing, as well as the industry's first seventh-generation x86 microarchitecture. The AMD Athlon processor family is designed to power the next generation in x86 computing platforms. It meets the computation-intensive requirements of cutting-edge software applications running on high-end desktop systems, workstations, and servers.

Business users who work with image processing, digital content creation, CAD/CAE, scientific applications and other computationally-demanding software will benefit from the superior processing power of AMD Athlon processor-based systems. Computing enthusiasts who want the highest performance and clock speeds to run the latest 3D gaming, entertainment, Internet, and personal productivity software will demand desktop systems powered by the AMD Athlon.

The Fastest x86 Processor in the World Today

The AMD Athlon processor's seventh-generation microarchitecture and high-bandwidth system bus enable it to attain performance levels never before achieved by an x86 processor. The AMD Athlon significantly outperforms previous-generation x86 processors, including Intel's Pentium® III product family, and delivers the highest integer, floating point, and 3D multimedia performance available for x86 platforms, as measured by industry-standard benchmarks.

The AMD Athlon processor provides superior processing power on real-world, mainstream Windows® compatible software, as well as computation-intensive applications for high-end desktops and workstations, including digital photo editing, digital video, commercial 3D modeling, image compression, soft DVD, CAD, and speech recognition.

Athlon(TM) Benchmarks

Benchmark System Configuration:
Diamond 770 using nVidia TNT2 Ultra 150MHz core, 183MHz memory clock 32MB, Western Digital Expert 41800, Single PC100 128MB DIMM, SoundBlaster Live (Value) Audio, Linksys HPN100 Home Ethernet card, Toshiba 6X DVD SD-M1212, Dual Boot Windows 98 & Windows NT 4.0 using Norton System Commander. Windows NT 4.0 is installed with SP4, Windows 98 with DX 6.1A build 2150, and nVidia TNT2 Ultra Driver Rev 1.81 under Windows 98 and Windows NT.

AMD Athlon processor-based system: Reference Motherboard Rev. B**, BIOS Rev AFTB00-2, Bus Mastering EIDE Driver v1.03, AGP miniport v4.41.

Pentium III processor-based system: ASUS P2B Rev 1.02, BIOS Rev 1008 beta 4, EIDE-BM Driver 5/11/98, AGP miniport 5/11/98. Pentium III Xeon processor-based system (512KB L2): Reference Motherboard Rev. B*, BIOS Rev AFTB00-2, Bus Mastering EIDE Driver v1.-3, AGP miniport v4.41.

*These Futuremark benchmarks employ an AMD Athlon processor-specific Dynamic Link Library (DLL) that has been developed independently by AMD. This benchmark is not meant to replace or be a new version of 3DMark, it is simply intended to demonstrate the superior performance capabilities of the AMD Athlon processor architecture.

**This motherboard is not commercially available at this time.

The Most Powerful Multimedia Experience

The AMD Athlon processor's unmatched performance and next-generation features combine to give end users an unprecedented computing experience, whether running standard productivity software or the latest cutting-edge consumer, business, and scientific applications.

Computing enthusiasts get the ultimate experience for Internet applications, digital imaging, 3D gaming, and personal creativity software. The AMD Athlon processor's advanced multimedia architecture and 3D technology deliver rich images, fast frame rates, and accurate theater-quality sound. The revolutionary 200-MHz system bus allows users to quickly and easily process Internet content from ADSL/cable modems and digital video imaging devices.

Business users get exceptionally high performance from AMD Athlon processor-based systems. Popular programs for desktop publishing, database, accounting, and other demanding business applications execute at faster speeds, resulting in incredible new levels of productivity. The power of the AMD Athlon processor's superior visual computing capabilities allows users to unleash their creativity and deliver high-impact Web designs and other dynamic communications to more effectively reach and influence customers.

Tomorrow's Technology Today

The seventh-generation AMD Athlon processor is based on the industry's most advanced x86 microarchitecture. The following features and capabilities combine to give users of AMD Athlon processor-based systems the ultimate computing experience, as well as the confidence that their systems are designed to meet their computing needs for years to come.

Processor Architecture/Technology Competitive Comparison

Enhanced 3DNow!™ Technology vs. SSE -- Instruction Comparison

Functionality Enhanced 3DNow! SSE Conclusion
SIMD floating point functionality (an AMD first) 21 (original 3DNow! instructions) ~52 Comparable functionality: Both technologies support 4 FP operations per clock and deliver up to 2.4 Gflops at 600 MHz. But 3DNow! is simpler to implement. SSE has many more instructions because Intel's architecture requires MMX control functionality to be duplicated and requires two FP instructions per extension: one for SIMD and another for scalar operations.

MMX (integer) augmentation and data movement

19 (new instructions) 19 Comparable functionality: Both have instructions for cache and streaming controls.

DSP communication extensions

5 (new instructions) 0 Unique AMD functionality: AMD advances SIMD with DSP extensions for soft modems, soft ADSL, complex math, MP3, and Dolby Digital.

Total number of instructions

45 71 Advantage AMD: Enhanced 3DNow! has greater functionality than SSE. When combined with the superior FP engine in the AMD Athlon, the result is the best FP/multimedia performance in x86 processors.

Powering the Next Generation in Computing Platforms

The combination of superior performance, high clock frequencies, impressive bus bandwidth, and a reliable design makes the AMD Athlon processor family a powerful choice for high-end desktop systems, workstations, and servers. Next-generation AMD Athlon processor-based computing platforms outperform comparably configured systems based on previous-generation x86 processors, such as the Pentium III.

The AMD Athlon processor offers the scalability and peace-of-mind reliability required by enterprise users and IT managers. The AMD Athlon system bus is also designed for scalable multiprocessing, with the number of AMD Athlon processors in a multiprocessor system determined by chipset implementation. As the AMD Athlon evolves into a family of processors, multiprocessing workstations and servers based on forthcoming AMD Athlon platforms are planned to become available.

High-performance AMD Athlon platforms are planned to provide a new level of performance and data-movement bandwidth for computation-intensive software used in such challenging applications as digital imaging, Internet content development, enterprise computing, CAD/CAE, scientific/technical calculations, and 3D gaming.

Compatible by Design

The AMD Athlon processor is compatible with x86 versions of Windows, including Windows 98 and Windows NT®, as well as other leading operating systems, such as Unix, Linux, OS/2 Warp, and Novell NetWare. The processor is also compatible with the existing installed base of more than 60,000 x86 software packages. In addition, many existing and forthcoming software packages are either currently optimized or planned to be optimized for enhanced 3DNow! technology and other architectural features implemented in the AMD Athlon processor.

Key architectural features of the AMD Athlon™

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