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Monday October 4, 8:05 am Eastern Time
Company Press Release
AMD Ships World's First 700MHz x86 Processor
Compaq, IBM And Other Leading Manufacturers Will Announce Availability Of PCs Powered by the New 700MHz AMD Athlon Processor
SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 4, 1999--AMD (NYSE:AMD - news) today introduced the 700MHz AMD Athlon(TM) processor, the world's fastest and highest-performance x86 processor. Major computer manufacturers including Compaq and IBM also will announce the availability of systems based on the 700MHz AMD Athlon processor.
''With the introduction of the AMD Athlon processor earlier this year, AMD delivered the industry's first seventh-generation x86 processor and set a new standard in PC performance levels. With today's announcement of the new 700MHz AMD Athlon processor, AMD continues to deliver the fastest, highest-performing x86 processor available,'' said Dana Krelle, Vice President of Marketing for AMD's Computation Products Group. ''This new addition to the AMD Athlon processor family provides unprecedented performance for cutting-edge commercial and consumer software applications.''
''AMD continues to lead the way in offering the highest-performing PC processor, enabling Compaq to deliver the highest-performing, fastest Internet PCs available,'' said Mark Vena, Director CTO Desktop Product Marketing, Compaq Computer Corporation. ''The 700 MHz AMD Athlon processor is a powerful addition to the Presario family of PC systems.''
More than 75 leading system manufacturers worldwide currently offer AMD Athlon processor-based systems for sale. Additionally, AMD Athlon processors are available to more than 20,000 AMD reseller partners for use in custom-designed PCs.
''As a leader in offering new technology products to our customers, Best Buy was the first national retailer to launch systems based on the AMD Athlon processor,'' said Scott Bauhofer, Best Buy Vice President for Marketing. ''Systems with the 700MHz AMD Athlon processor are now available through our configure to order program.''
700MHz AMD Athlon(TM) Processor Delivers New Levels of Performance
The AMD Athlon processor's seventh-generation microarchitecture, fully pipelined, superscalar floating point engine, and high-bandwidth, 200MHz system bus enable it to achieve unparalleled floating-point, integer and multimedia performance levels for x86 computer systems. The 700MHz AMD Athlon processor significantly outperforms the highest-performing Intel Pentium® III processor, a 600MHz processor, on a broad range of exacting commercial and consumer applications, including digital content creation, 3D graphics, commercial 3D modeling, CAD/workstation, image compression, speed recognition and mainstream applications. The AMD Athlon processor family now includes a wide offering of processor speeds, from 500 to 700MHz.
Superior floating point performance: With the most powerful floating point engine ever created for x86 platforms, the 700MHz AMD Athlon processor delivers the ultimate visual computing experience, and enables superior performance for scientific, mathematical and engineering applications. A 700MHz AMD Athlon processor-based system delivers significantly better floating point performance than comparably configured Pentium III 600MHz systems, according to the results of SPECfp_base95 and WinBench(TM) 99 FPU WinMark benchmark tests. For example, a 700MHz AMD Athlon processor has more than 57 percent higher performance than a 600MHz Pentium III on the SPECfp_base95 benchmark.
Superior integer performance: A 700MHz AMD Athlon processor-based system outperforms comparably configured 600Mz Pentium III systems as measured by leading integer benchmarks such as the SPECint_base95 and WinBench® 99CPUmark(TM) 99 benchmarks. A 700 MHz AMD Athlon processor-based system outperforms a 600MHz Pentium III by more than 45 percent on the WinBench® 99 CPUmark(TM) 99 benchmark.
Superior multimedia performance: The 700MHz AMD Athlon processor delivers clearly superior 3D performance when compared to comparably configured 600MHz Pentium III systems, according to leading 3D benchmarks, such as Ziff-Davis 3D WinBench 99 v1.2 (Null Driver and Transform & Lighting versions) and Futuremark's 3DMark(TM) 99 MAX (3DMarks and CPU 3DMarks).
Benchmarks
For AMD Athlon processor 700MHz benchmark performance data, please see www.amd.com/news/news.html
About the AMD Athlon processor
The AMD Athlon processor is an x86-compatible, seventh-generation design featuring a superpipelined, nine-issue superscalar microarchitecture optimized for high clock frequency; the industry's first fully pipelined, superscalar floating point unit for x86 platforms; high-performance cache technology, including 128 KB of on-chip level-one(L1) cache and a programmable, high-performance backside L2 cache interface; enhanced 3DNow!(TM) technology with 24 new instructions designed to improve integer math calculations, data movement for Internet streaming, and DSP communications; and the AMD Athlon system bus - a 200MHz system interface based on the Alpha(TM) EV6 bus protocol with support for scalable multiprocessing. The AMD Athlon processors are manufactured on AMD's 0.25-micron process technology in FAB 25 in Austin, Texas.
The AMD Athlon processor's seventh-generation microarchitecture, superscalar floating point engine, and high-bandwidth, 200MHz system bus enable it to achieve performance levels never before attained in an x86 processor. The AMD Athlon processor significantly outperforms previous-generation processors, such as Intel's Pentium III product family, and delivers the highest floating point, integer, and 3D multimedia performance for x86 system platforms.
Pricing
The 700MHz AMD Athlon processor is priced at $849 each in 1,000 unit quantities.
About AMD
AMD is a global supplier of integrated circuits for the personal and networked computer and communications markets. AMD produces microprocessors, flash memories, and integrated circuits for communications and networking applications. Founded in 1969 and based in Sunnyvale, California, AMD had revenues of $2.5 billion in 1998. (NYSE:AMD - news).
Cautionary Statement
This release may contain forward-looking statements, which are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are generally preceded by words such as ''plans,'' ''expects,'' ''believes,'' ''anticipates'' or ''intends.'' Investors are cautioned that all forward-looking statements in this release involve risks and uncertainty that could cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations. Forward-looking statements in this release about the 700MHz AMD Athlon processor involve the risk that AMD will not be able to produce the processor in the volume required by customers on a timely basis, that Compaq and IBM computer systems incorporating the 700MHz AMD Athlon processor will not be released on schedule or at all, that third parties may not provide infrastructure solutions to support the processor, and that the processor will not achieve customer and market acceptance. We urge investors to review in detail the risks and uncertainties in the company's Securities and Exchange Commission filings.
AMD on the Web: Additional press releases and information about AMD are available at http://www/amd.com/news/news.html. Information about AMD and its products is available at amd.com
AMD, the AMD logo, AMD Athlon and combinations thereof, and 3DNow! are trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Pentium is a registered trademark of Intel Corporation. Microsoft, Windows and Windows NT are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. 3D WinBench is a trademark and WinBench is a registered trademark of Ziff-Davis, Inc. Other product names used in this publication are for identification purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective companies.
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