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The Boston Globe OnlineBoston.com Boston Globe Online / Business
PLUGGED IN
New chip on the block

AMD's K6 processor a growing force behind lower-cost, high-performance system trend

By Simson L. Garfinkel, 01/08/98

uring the Christmas rush I bought not one but two ultra-high-performance desktop computers.

The first machine has a 300 MHz Pentium II microprocessor manufactured by Intel Corp., the company that holds the lion's share of the microchip market. The second system has a 233 MHz K6 processor manufactured by Advanced Micro Devices Inc. It's nearly as fast as the Pentium II - and costs a whole lot less.

AMD's K6 processors made news Tuesday when Compaq Computer Corp. and International Business Machines Corp. each said it would use them in low-cost computers aimed at the home, education, and small-business markets.

Indeed, the K6 may well be one of the factors driving computer prices below $1,000 in the coming year.

There are several reasons why K6-based systems are less expensive than those using Pentium or Pentium II chips. The first is simple: AMD charges less for its chip. On the open market you can buy an Intel 233 MHz Pentium MMX processor for about $370, a 200 MHz Pentium Pro for $600, and a 233 MHz Pentium II - the fastest of the three - for roughly $500 (more about these seemingly contradictory prices in a moment). But an AMD 233 MHz K6 chip - whose performance falls about midway between the Pentium Pro and the Pentium II - costs $260.

Another reason K6 systems are cheaper concerns the chip's physical characteristics. The K6 plugs into the same kind of socket - called Socket 7 by the industry - Intel's Pentium processors use. In fact, you can unplug a 100 MHz Pentium processor on an old computer, plug in a new K6, and roughly double your computer's performance.

Intel's newer Pentium II doesn't use Socket 7. Instead, it comes with a long edge connector that plugs into a slot on the motherboard. Intel calls this new interface Slot 1. The Pentium II chip itself is sealed inside a large black rectangular block that is about the size of a paperback book.

This new design is the reason Pentium II is less expensive than the Pentium Pro, explains Howard High, an Intel spokesman. Both the Pentium Pro and the Pentium II come with an on-board Level 2 cache that helps make the computer go faster. But the Pentium Pro has a custom-built (and expensive) L2 cache designed by Intel; the Pentium II uses lower-cost (but bigger) chips that Intel bought on the open market.

Slot 1 was designed to be a high-performance, low-cost alternative for the desktop machine, says High. But it's not dramatically faster, because Slot 1 offers the same bandwidth as Socket 7.

AMD's K6 doesn't have a built-in cache. Instead, it uses the cache that is on your system board, which is why the K6 is a little slower than the Pentium II.

This year AMD will release a new K6, code-named K6+, that will have a built-in L2 cache. At that point, the new K6 might erase the Pentium II's performance advantage, says Dana Krelle, director of marketing at AMD's microprocessor division.

I bought my Pentium II computer to replace the heavily loaded server that's in my basement - I wanted the fastest machine I could find.

But I got the K6 for my new desktop: It's more than powerful enough to run demanding applications such as 3-D rendering and Dragon NaturallySpeaking, a speech-recognition program.

But is it really safe to use a K6 chip instead of a chip from Intel? I think so. In my testing, I haven't found a single program that won't run on the K6.

''It's absolutely compatible,'' says Krelle. ''We test on about 70 different operating systems,'' including Windows and numerous versions of Unix.

Where Intel is likely to keep its lead is in high-end servers - systems that have four, eight, or more CPUs running at the same time. Slot 1 (Slot 2 should follow later in 1998) does a better job letting multiple CPUs access the same system resources.

All of this technical infighting might seem like a lot of geek-speak to the average consumer, but it should actually be music to your ears.

It means new life for old Pentium computers and cheaper high-performance computers in the coming year. (If you do decide to swap your old Pentium for a K6, be sure you buy a K6 that is matched to the same voltage as your old Pentium CPU.)

The advent of the K6 also means Intel, for the first time in years, is beginning to face some serious competition at the high-performance end of the market - where the real money is.

''Historically, Intel has this remarkable ability to charge a factor of eight for a performance boost of two in microprocessors,'' says Peter Christy, a longtime industry analyst in Silicon Valley.

Lower-price, high-performance processors from AMD will put pressure on Intel to lower its prices in return, says Christy. That might end up slowing down the rate of innovation, if Intel isn't careful, since less money will be available for research and development.

But in order to make an impact on Intel's bottom line, AMD's top-of-the-line chips need to be competitive with Intel's top of the line.

After all, I paid a $750 premium to buy that 300 MHz Pentium II computer. I would have been happy to buy a 300 MHz K6 machine, but when I made that purchase, the fastest K6 I could find ran at 233 MHz.

Technology writer Simson L. Garfinkel can be reached at plugged-in@simson.net.

This story ran on page C04 of the Boston Globe on 01/08/98.
© Copyright 1998 Globe Newspaper Company.

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