Broadcom, Cisco, NVIDIA, Sun Among First Adopters of AMD's New HyperTransport TechnologyAMD's HyperTransport(tm) Technology Increases Data Throughput Up to 24 Times Compared to Existing Technologies
BUSINESS WIRE - February 13, 2001 21:07
TAIPEI, Taiwan, Feb 14, 2001 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- At Platform Conference 2001, AMD (NYSE:AMD) today announced it is working with more than 100 key business partners throughout the computer and communications industries to help drive the development and widespread adoption of its HyperTransport(tm) technology.
Industry heavyweights Broadcom Corporation (Nasdaq:BRCM), Cisco Systems, NVIDIA and Sun Microsystems Inc. plan to use AMD's HyperTransport technology to increase the performance of their future products. A HyperTransport consortium is also planned.
HyperTransport technology, formerly code-named Lightning Data Transport (LDT), is an innovative new technology that moves information faster. With a peak data transfer rate of 6.4GB per second possible, HyperTransport technology is designed to enable the chips inside of PCs, networking and communications devices to communicate with each other up to 24 times faster than with existing technologies.
"HyperTransport technology is designed to accelerate internal system communications for a broad range of applications. Although initially developed for high-performance PC and server platforms, the technology is also gaining momentum in networking and communications devices, embedded applications, and other non-PC devices," said Linley Gwennap, principal analyst of The Linley Group. "With major industry players like Cisco and Sun endorsing the technology and planning to integrate it into commercial products, the future of HyperTransport looks bright."
HyperTransport is designed to reduce bottlenecks and speed the flow of data inside of computers and the networking devices that power the Internet. Additionally, AMD plans to use HyperTransport technology to help servers, workstations and PCs powered by its next-generation family of processors reach new pinnacles of performance.
"HyperTransport technology is planned to enhance overall system performance of AMD platforms, from desktops to servers," said David W. Williams, director of Windows(R) Hardware Strategy at Microsoft. "AMD's design allows for future I/O performance improvements and lower design costs while maintaining compatibility with existing operating systems."
"With AMD's octane-charged HyperTransport technology, computers and networking devices of all types can be developed to integrate new features that were previously unavailable because of limited chip-to-chip communication speed," said Dirk Meyer, group vice president of AMD's Computation Products Group. "Today's announcement again reinforces our commitment to drive state-of-the-art technology into the market."
"HyperTransport is the latest of several technologies AMD has driven to market that deliver tangible performance increases compared to the technologies they replaced. Notably, AMD spearheaded 3DNow!(tm) technology, adapted the Alpha(tm) EV6 bus for PCs with the AMD Athlon(tm) processor, and spurred on DDR memory technology with the introduction of our AMD-760(tm) chipset," said Richard Heye, vice president of AMD's Platform & Infrastructure Engineering & Microprocessor Business Management. "HyperTransport technology is yet another example of how AMD collaborates with its partners in response to industry needs, promoting a new standard for internal system communications."
Multiple products integrating support for HyperTransport technology are in development to support desktop and notebook PCs, workstations and servers, and Internet communication devices.
HyperTransport(tm) Technology Garners Industry Support
More than 100 companies are working with AMD to drive the development of HyperTransport technology. An increasing number of these companies, including Broadcom, Cisco, NVIDIA and Sun Microsystems, have licensed the technology to design into their products.
"As a leader in the broadband communications arena, Broadcom's products take technology into the home and office, transforming the way people live and work. HyperTransport technology is planned to enhance the user's experience even further, offering faster transmission for data, voice and video," said Dan Dobberpuhl, vice president and general manager of Broadcom's Broadband Processor Business Unit.
"AMD's HyperTransport bus is an important new technology that aligns well with Cisco's objective to empower the Internet generation. It will help us bring to market a new generation of intelligent, high-performance-processor based network solutions," said John Wakerly, vice president and CTO of Cisco's Enterprise Line of Business.
"Media rich PCs and game consoles will benefit from AMD's new HyperTransport technology," said Dan Vivoli, executive vice president of marketing at NVIDIA. "By reducing the bottlenecks that impede the flow of data traffic between system components, HyperTransport is designed to free audio, communications and graphics engines to run at full throttle, providing end users with an unmatched experience."
"Sun continually evaluates new technologies, like HyperTransport, to enable the next level of bus performance and functionality in our workstations and servers," said Balint Fleischer, director of architecture and technology, Internet Desktop and Servers Group, Sun Microsystems Inc. "Sun is committed to driving industry standards to bring the most advanced technologies to our customers."
Third-party products using HyperTransport technology are planned to sample soon from companies including Altera and NVIDIA, and AMD plans for the first products to be commercially available later this year.
About HyperTransport(tm) Technology
HyperTransport is a new high-speed, high-performance, point-to-point link for integrated circuits. HyperTransport provides a universal connection that is designed to reduce the number of buses within the system, provide a high-performance link for embedded applications, and enable highly scalable multiprocessing systems. It was developed to enable the chips inside of PCs, networking and communications devices to communicate with each other up to 24 times faster than with existing technologies.
Compared with existing system interconnects that provide bandwidth up to 266MB/sec, HyperTransport technology's bandwidth of 6.4GB/sec represents better than a 20-fold increase in data throughput. HyperTransport provides an extremely fast connection that complements externally visible bus standards like the Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI), as well as emerging technologies like InfiniBand.
HyperTransport is the connection that is designed to provide the bandwidth that the new InfiniBand standard requires to communicate with memory and system components inside of next-generation servers and devices that will power the backbone infrastructure of the telecomm industry. HyperTransport technology is targeted primarily at the information technology and telecomm industries, but any application in which high speed, low latency and scalability is necessary can potentially take advantage of HyperTransport technology.
HyperTransport technology also has a unique daisy-chainable feature, giving the opportunity to connect multiple HyperTransport input/output bridges to a single channel. HyperTransport technology is designed to support up to 32 devices per channel and can mix and match components with different bus widths and speeds.
Platform Conference 2001
AMD's HyperTransport announcement is taking place today and tomorrow in conjunction with Platform Conference 2001 at the Taipei International Convention Center. As a co-sponsor, AMD is delivering the keynote address and leading several technical sessions.
The Platform Conference delivers comprehensive information on new and emerging technologies delivered first-hand by engineers and technical experts in specialized sessions that facilitate debate and interactive discussion.
The following is a listing of AMD-sponsored sessions:
AMD Keynote
9 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 14
Gabriele Sartori -- Director, Technology Evangelism
Gabriele Sartori will discuss forthcoming processors,
platforms and technologies that are designed to enable AMD to
deliver high-performance solutions targeted at the
multiprocessor workstation and server markets.
The AMD Athlon(tm) Processor:
Architectural Enhancements for Advanced Multiprocessing Systems
3 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 14, & 9 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 15
Discussion about AMD's enhancements to its forthcoming
high-performance CPU cores. Design tradeoffs at the chip and
system level will also be discussed, along with solutions to
bandwidth and latency challenges presented by dual GHz-plus
processors and the implications for system design.
HyperTransport(tm) Technology
4:15 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 14
Enabling I/O and inter-processor communications throughput
satisfactory for the demands of next generation platforms. Get
a glimpse of the support and infrastructure building within
the industry for HyperTransport(tm) technology.
ACR Enumeration
4:15 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 14
Enumeration is one of the key advantages offered by Advanced
Communication Riser (ACR) standard. This session covers the
goals of enumeration from the motherboard and riser points of
view and exemplifies the benefits of enumeration of ACR riser
to end user, OEM and channel.
Visit AMD on the Web
Additional press releases and information about AMD and its products are available at: amd.com
About AMD
AMD is a global supplier of integrated circuits for the personal and networked computer and communications markets with manufacturing facilities in the United States, Europe, Japan and Asia. AMD produces microprocessors, flash memory devices, and support circuitry for communications and networking applications. Founded in 1969 and based in Sunnyvale, Calif., AMD had revenues of $4.6 billion in 2000. (NYSE:AMD).
Cautionary Statement
This release contains forward-looking statements, which are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. 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 include the risks that AMD will not be able to implement the HyperTransport(tm) technology in a server or multiprocessor computer system that uses AMD processors; that the HyperTransport technology will not gain widespread industry or market acceptance; that AMD or third parties will not develop and distribute HyperTransport technology-based products in a timely manner, if at all; and that a HyperTransport consortium may not be formed by AMD. We urge investors to review in detail the risks and uncertainties in the Company's filings with the United States Securities Exchange Commission.
AMD, the AMD logo, AMD Athlon, AMD-760, 3DNow!, HyperTransport, and combinations thereof, are trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices Inc.
Broadcom(R) is a registered trademark of Broadcom Corporation and/or its affiliates in the United States and certain other countries.
Windows is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the U.S. and other jurisdictions.
Alpha is a trademark of Digital Equipment Corporation.
All other product names are used for identification purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective companies.
CONTACT: AMD Public Relations, Austin Catherine Abbinanti, 512/602-2292 cathy.abbinanti@amd.com or Ward Tisdale, 512/602-8536 ward.tisdale@amd.com or Toni Beckham, 408/749-3127 (IR) |
