Chapter 3 Processor/Memory Subsystem

3.2ATHLON XP PROCESSOR

This system features an AMD Athlon XP processor in a Socket 462-compatible package mounted with a passive heat sink. The mounting socket allows the processor to be easily changed for servicing and/or upgrading.

3.2.1 PROCESSOR OVERVIEW

The AMD Athlon XP processor represents the latest development of AMD processors that takes advantage of the Windows XP operating system. The Athlon XP processor is well-suited for demanding applications involving digital photo manipulation, video editing, audio and video streaming over the internet, 3D modeling, and commercial desktop publishing.

Key features of the Athlon XP processor include:

Superpipelined, superscalar technology – A nine-stage pipeline for increased processing frequencies.

Multple x86 instruction decoders for parallel processing

Hardware data prefetch

Advanced Translation Look-Aside Buffer for data and instruction addresses

Large full-speed 384-KB cache – 128-KB L1 cache and 256-KB L2 cache

Enhanced Floating Point Processor - Executes all x87 (math co-processor), MMX, SSE, and 3DNow! instructions.

Advanced dynamic branch prediction

The Athlon XP processor is backward-compatible with software written for most x86-type processors such as the AMD Athlon 4, AMD Duron, and Intel Pentium processors. The Athlon XP processor supports applications using MMX, SSE, and 3DNow! instructions.

Manufactured using 0.13 micron technology, the Athlon XP processor’s uses a deeply-pipelined, superscalar architecture that uses three x86 instruction decoders that each feed an execution engine. Parallel execution engines provide a 3-instruction-per-clock cycle ability that is unmatched by other x86 processors. In addition, the floating pointing unit features QuantiSpeed architecture that uses three execution units that work in parallel to process as many as four 32-bit floating point results per cycle.

3-2Compaq D315 and hp d325 Personal Computers Featuring the AMD Athlon XP Processor

Second Edition - April 2003

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HP D315 manual Athlon XP Processor, Processor Overview