AMD Brings Down the Hammer With New Microprocessor Architecture

AMD is definitely embracing its role as Intel's main competitor in recent weeks. We just saw the Athlon XP closely followed this week by the Athlon MP , and now we're seeing what the company is pitching into the ring in the way of 64-bit processors. Down at the Microprocessor Forum , AMD turned loose the details of its next-generation "Hammer" PC microprocessor architecture. Hammer is designed to help servers migrate from 32-bit to 64-bit code, since it's set up to run both. Other features include a high bandwidth integrated memory, input/output and multiprocessing controller, and a scalable system bus that uses HyperTransport with support for single and multiprocessor configurations. This means the chips could be used in everything from laptops to desktops to eight-way multiprocessing servers. AMD says that its approach to 64-bit computing builds upon the x86 instruction set, and that its x86-64 technology is designed to support applications that address large amounts of physical and virtual memory, such as high performance servers, database management systems, and CAD tools. Over at The Inquirer , the now ambulatory Mike Magee has a bunch of insights into what this means to Intel and servers in general. Mike figures that AMD will be a thorn in Intel's side for at least a couple of years on the server front, mostly because Intel hasn't taken into account that users are more likely to migrate slowly from 32 to 64-bit apps than they are to ditch the old and bring in the new in one fell swoop.