Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bill Jackson who wrote (28055)	1/22/1998 2:46:00 PM
From: Petz	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1574006

Bill, re: flash updating CPU The instruction set IS the CPU. If the instruction set is unknown, it is impossible to design a clone of a CPU. Here's what they could possibly do to improve compatibility however. They could possibly include a flash area in the CPU to "map" the AM3D opcodes. Since there are many more Intel KNI instructions than AM3D instructions, the AM3D instructions could not emulate the Katmai by mapping, but the AM3D opcodes could possibly be mapped to non-conflicting binary codes. Then, if KNI software were run on a K63D or K6+3D CPU, or vice versa, the OS would trap it as an error rather than possibly generating incorrect results. While this is a possibility, its probably not worth it. Any software written for the K6 3D, K6+3D, Katmai (also Cyrix or IDT "3D" CPU's) will be able to query the CPU to determine if its compatible. Many more software games will just settle for the improvement they can get by the speedup of the Microsoft Direct-3D routines. Only things like speech recognition will need native code to take advantage of the AM3D instruction set. IMO, AMD will wait for the K7 for true KNI compatibility and may include the mapping capability so AM3D-specific software can be run on the K7 without changing it. If Intel doesn't release the details of KNI soon, they are violating anti-trust laws, since design for the K7, intended for release contemporaneously with the Katmai is probably nearing the point of no return, as is the Katmai itself. As a de-facto monopoly, to withold the information for more than another month would doom Intel to a multibillion $ loss from lawsuits. One other point - to be really successful in the gaming market, AMD had better make sure OpenGL specifically supports AM3D. Petz