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K6-2 - AMD
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Revision as of 20:02, 1 August 2016 by ChipIt (talk | contribs) (some overview info)

AMD K6-2
AMD K6-2 logo.svg
Marketing Logo
Developer AMD
Manufacturer AMD
Type Microprocessors
Introduction May 28, 1998 (announced)
June, 1998 (launch)
Production 1998
Architecture Pentium II-compatible superscalar microprocessors with MMX and 3DNow!
ISA IA-32
µarch K6-2
Word size 32 bit
4 octets
8 nibbles
Process 250 nm
0.25 μm
2.5e-4 mm
Technology CMOS
Clock 233 MHz-550 MHz
Package CPGA-321
Socket Socket 7, Super Socket 7
Succession
K6 K6-III

K6-2 was a family of 32-bit x86 microprocessors introduced by AMD in early 1998 as a successor to the K6 family. These processors introduced a number of enhancements including support for Super Socket 7 with bus speeds of up to 100 MHz and 3DNow! SIMD extension.

Overview

Following AMD's acquisition of NexGen in 1995 and the success from the release of K6 (a rebranding of NegGen's Nx686), AMD had the financial means of developing the microarchitecture further. With the K6-2 family, AMD took the safe approach and improved on K6 by adding a number new features as well as improving its overall performance.

AMD increased and improved much of the K6 microarchitecure by adding a number of additional units boosting the overall performance. The K6-2 was AMD's first series of processors to offer 3DNow!, an x86 extension that offered floating point SIMD instructions. The addition of 3DNow! gave floating point calculations a serious performance boost and a much necessery boost since Intel usually dominated the area of fast x87 applications. Despite being the first to introduce a series of SIMD instructions, 3DNow! never gained as much popularity as SEE did, a later implementation by Intel.

Super 7

Main article: Super 7

AMD previously used Socket 7 for their K6 chips which was the last socket specification AMD retained rights to. Intel ditched that socket in favor of Slot 1 partially in an attempt to lock AMD out of a number of improved features, leaving them with an outdated platform.

For the K6-2 AMD introduced an enhanced version of Socket 7 called Super 7 Socket. Super 7 maintained backwards compatibilitiy with the older Socket 7 but added support for a system bus of up to 100 MHz. Additionally support for AGP was also introduced.

The risky move by AMD and a number of chipset manufacturers paid off and by 1998 Super 7 proved to be a highly profitable business move.

Facts about "K6-2 - AMD"
designerAMD +
first announcedMay 28, 1998 +
first launchedJune 1998 +
full page nameamd/k6-2 +
instance ofmicroprocessor family +
instruction set architectureIA-32 +
main designerAMD +
manufacturerAMD +
microarchitectureK6-2 +
nameAMD K6-2 +
packageCPGA-321 +
process250 nm (0.25 μm, 2.5e-4 mm) +
socketSocket 7 + and Super Socket 7 +
technologyCMOS +
word size32 bit (4 octets, 8 nibbles) +