AMD threatens IA64 with 'SledgeHammer'

Advanced Micro Devices did its best to rain on rival Intel's Itanium parade, revealing new details of its own forthcoming 64-bit processor on the heels of Intel's announcement.

The day after Intel announced that its IA64 chip - formerly known as Merced - will be introduced under the Itanium brand, AMD went public with some details of its "SledgeHammer" chip, previously known as the K8.

AMD says SledgeHammer will be designed to run older 32-bit software at high speeds, in contrast to the relatively slow performance that is expected for the 32-bit software running on the Itanium chip. And since AMD's new "x86 64" architecture will offer a less radical style of computing than Merced, AMD officials claim that it will be far easier for programmers to write 64-bit versions of the software.

The complete story appears at www.zdnn.com .