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, CA--OCTOBER 4, 1999--AMD today introduced the 700MHz AMD Athlonprocessor, 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 AthlonProcessor 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 WinBench99 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® 99CPUmark99 benchmarks. A 700 MHz AMD Athlon processor-based system outperforms a 600MHz Pentium III by more than 45 percent on the WinBench® 99 CPUmark99 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 3DMark99 MAX (3DMarks and CPU 3DMarks).
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!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 AlphaEV6 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.
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.