AMD K5
K5-200
Developer	AMD
Manufacturer	AMD
Type	Microprocessors
Introduction	October 24, 1994 (announced) March 27, 1996 (launch)
Production	1996
Architecture	Pentium-compatible superscalar microprocessors
ISA	IA-32
µarch	K5
Word size	32 bit 4 octets 8 nibbles
Process	500 nm 0.5 μm 5.0e-4 mm , 350 nm 0.35 μm 3.5e-4 mm
Technology	CMOS
Clock	75 MHz-116.66 MHz
Package	SPGA-296
Socket	Socket 5, Socket 7
Succession
←	→
Am5x86	K6

K5 was a family of microprocessors designed by AMD and introduced in 1996. K5 models directly rivaled Intel's Pentium processors. These processors were based on AMD's K5 Microarchitecture which was their first x86 microarchitecture to be designed in-house from the ground up without licensing or reverse-engineering Intel's architectures.

Overview

K5 was a result of desperation and frustration with cloning and second-sourcing Intel-based x86 microprocessors. Rumors for the development of K5 dates back to mid-1993, however it was only officially announced in late 1994 with the goal of releasing the first batch of chips in in 1995. K5, which stands for Kryptonite 5, which as its name implied was an ambitious attempt by AMD to take on Intel (being Superman, metaphorically). The design suffered significant delays first due to early design problems and later due to problems with various x86 incompatibilities. The first few models, using SSA/5, were finally released in March of 1996.

The first version of K5 Microarchitecture introduced, SSA/5, had many technical improvements over Intel's Pentium, making it well ahead of its time. It had an instruction translator that converted CISC instructions into simpler RISC instructions. Due to numerous manufacturing issues and design choices, K5 failed to deliver the expected performance it should have.

AMD went back and readdressed some of the deficiencies the SSA/5 design had. AMD introduced the new version of K5, named 5k86, in October of 1996. AMD had reworked the way memory gets accessed and flows through, from L1$ to L2$ and main. The results is upward of 35% performance improvements across the board. 5k86's performance outmatched Pentium's with lower clock speed.

Architecture

Main article: K5 Microarchitecture

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Developers

• Mike Johnson, Chief Architect

Die Shot

AMD-K5-PR75ABR

AMD-K5-PR150ABR

Members

AMD initially released SSA/5-based models, but they suffered great performance issues. AMD revised the microarchitecture, releasing 5k86-based models which out-performed Intel's Pentium clock for clock and were thus clocked at lower than the advertised Pentium Performance rating they were given.

SSA/5-based models

,,,,,

SSA/5-based Processors
Model	Launched	Process	Freq	Mult.	Bus	Max Mem	VCORE	Package	Min Tcase	Max Tcase
AMD-K5-PR100ABQ	17 June 1996	350 nm 0.35 μm 3.5e-4 mm	99.99 MHz 0.1 GHz 99,990 kHz	1.5	66.66 MHz 0.0667 GHz 66,660 kHz	4,096 MiB 4,194,304 KiB 4,294,967,296 B 4 GiB 0.00391 TiB	3.525 V 35.25 dV 352.5 cV 3,525 mV		0 °C 273.15 K 32 °F 491.67 °R	60 °C 333.15 K 140 °F 599.67 °R
AMD-K5-PR100ABR	17 June 1996	350 nm 0.35 μm 3.5e-4 mm	99.99 MHz 0.1 GHz 99,990 kHz	1.5	66.66 MHz 0.0667 GHz 66,660 kHz	4,096 MiB 4,194,304 KiB 4,294,967,296 B 4 GiB 0.00391 TiB	3.525 V 35.25 dV 352.5 cV 3,525 mV		0 °C 273.15 K 32 °F 491.67 °R	70 °C 343.15 K 158 °F 617.67 °R
AMD-K5-PR75ABR	7 October 1996	350 nm 0.35 μm 3.5e-4 mm	75 MHz 0.075 GHz 75,000 kHz	1.5	50 MHz 0.05 GHz 50,000 kHz	4,096 MiB 4,194,304 KiB 4,294,967,296 B 4 GiB 0.00391 TiB	3.525 V 35.25 dV 352.5 cV 3,525 mV		0 °C 273.15 K 32 °F 491.67 °R	70 °C 343.15 K 158 °F 617.67 °R
AMD-K5-PR90ABQ	7 October 1996	350 nm 0.35 μm 3.5e-4 mm	90 MHz 0.09 GHz 90,000 kHz	1.5	60 MHz 0.06 GHz 60,000 kHz	4,096 MiB 4,194,304 KiB 4,294,967,296 B 4 GiB 0.00391 TiB	3.525 V 35.25 dV 352.5 cV 3,525 mV		0 °C 273.15 K 32 °F 491.67 °R	60 °C 333.15 K 140 °F 599.67 °R
AMD-SSA/5-75ABR	27 March 1996	500 nm 0.5 μm 5.0e-4 mm	75 MHz 0.075 GHz 75,000 kHz	1.5	50 MHz 0.05 GHz 50,000 kHz	4,096 MiB 4,194,304 KiB 4,294,967,296 B 4 GiB 0.00391 TiB	3.525 V 35.25 dV 352.5 cV 3,525 mV		0 °C 273.15 K 32 °F 491.67 °R	70 °C 343.15 K 158 °F 617.67 °R
AMD-SSA/5-90ABQ	27 March 1996	500 nm 0.5 μm 5.0e-4 mm	90 MHz 0.09 GHz 90,000 kHz	1.5	60 MHz 0.06 GHz 60,000 kHz	4,096 MiB 4,194,304 KiB 4,294,967,296 B 4 GiB 0.00391 TiB	3.525 V 35.25 dV 352.5 cV 3,525 mV		0 °C 273.15 K 32 °F 491.67 °R	60 °C 333.15 K 140 °F 599.67 °R
Count: 6

5k86-based models

,,,,,,,,

5k86-based Processors
Model	Launched	Process	Freq	Mult.	Bus	Max Mem	VCORE	Package	Min Tcase	Max Tcase
AMD-K5-PR120ABQ	7 October 1996	350 nm 0.35 μm 3.5e-4 mm	90 MHz 0.09 GHz 90,000 kHz	1.5	60 MHz 0.06 GHz 60,000 kHz	4,096 MiB 4,194,304 KiB 4,294,967,296 B 4 GiB 0.00391 TiB	3.525 V 35.25 dV 352.5 cV 3,525 mV		0 °C 273.15 K 32 °F 491.67 °R	60 °C 333.15 K 140 °F 599.67 °R
AMD-K5-PR120ABR	7 October 1996	350 nm 0.35 μm 3.5e-4 mm	90 MHz 0.09 GHz 90,000 kHz	1.5	60 MHz 0.06 GHz 60,000 kHz	4,096 MiB 4,194,304 KiB 4,294,967,296 B 4 GiB 0.00391 TiB	3.525 V 35.25 dV 352.5 cV 3,525 mV		0 °C 273.15 K 32 °F 491.67 °R	70 °C 343.15 K 158 °F 617.67 °R
AMD-K5-PR133ABQ	7 October 1996	350 nm 0.35 μm 3.5e-4 mm	99.99 MHz 0.1 GHz 99,990 kHz	1.5	66.66 MHz 0.0667 GHz 66,660 kHz	4,096 MiB 4,194,304 KiB 4,294,967,296 B 4 GiB 0.00391 TiB	3.525 V 35.25 dV 352.5 cV 3,525 mV		0 °C 273.15 K 32 °F 491.67 °R	60 °C 333.15 K 140 °F 599.67 °R
AMD-K5-PR133ABR	7 October 1996	350 nm 0.35 μm 3.5e-4 mm	99.99 MHz 0.1 GHz 99,990 kHz	1.5	66.66 MHz 0.0667 GHz 66,660 kHz	4,096 MiB 4,194,304 KiB 4,294,967,296 B 4 GiB 0.00391 TiB	3.525 V 35.25 dV 352.5 cV 3,525 mV		0 °C 273.15 K 32 °F 491.67 °R	70 °C 343.15 K 158 °F 617.67 °R
AMD-K5-PR150ABR	6 January 1997	350 nm 0.35 μm 3.5e-4 mm	105 MHz 0.105 GHz 105,000 kHz	1.75	60 MHz 0.06 GHz 60,000 kHz	4,096 MiB 4,194,304 KiB 4,294,967,296 B 4 GiB 0.00391 TiB	3.525 V 35.25 dV 352.5 cV 3,525 mV		0 °C 273.15 K 32 °F 491.67 °R	70 °C 343.15 K 158 °F 617.67 °R
AMD-K5-PR166ABQ	6 January 1997	350 nm 0.35 μm 3.5e-4 mm	116.66 MHz 0.117 GHz 116,660 kHz	1.75	66.66 MHz 0.0667 GHz 66,660 kHz	4,096 MiB 4,194,304 KiB 4,294,967,296 B 4 GiB 0.00391 TiB	3.525 V 35.25 dV 352.5 cV 3,525 mV		0 °C 273.15 K 32 °F 491.67 °R	60 °C 333.15 K 140 °F 599.67 °R
AMD-K5-PR166ABR	6 January 1997	350 nm 0.35 μm 3.5e-4 mm	116.66 MHz 0.117 GHz 116,660 kHz	1.75	66.66 MHz 0.0667 GHz 66,660 kHz	4,096 MiB 4,194,304 KiB 4,294,967,296 B 4 GiB 0.00391 TiB	3.525 V 35.25 dV 352.5 cV 3,525 mV		0 °C 273.15 K 32 °F 491.67 °R	70 °C 343.15 K 158 °F 617.67 °R
AMD-K5-PR166ABX	6 January 1997	350 nm 0.35 μm 3.5e-4 mm	116.66 MHz 0.117 GHz 116,660 kHz	1.75	66.66 MHz 0.0667 GHz 66,660 kHz	4,096 MiB 4,194,304 KiB 4,294,967,296 B 4 GiB 0.00391 TiB	3.525 V 35.25 dV 352.5 cV 3,525 mV		0 °C 273.15 K 32 °F 491.67 °R	65 °C 338.15 K 149 °F 608.67 °R
AMD-K5-PR200ABX	April 1997	350 nm 0.35 μm 3.5e-4 mm	133.33 MHz 0.133 GHz 133,330 kHz	2	66.66 MHz 0.0667 GHz 66,660 kHz	4,096 MiB 4,194,304 KiB 4,294,967,296 B 4 GiB 0.00391 TiB	3.525 V 35.25 dV 352.5 cV 3,525 mV		0 °C 273.15 K 32 °F 491.67 °R	65 °C 338.15 K 149 °F 608.67 °R
Count: 9

Documents

DataSheet

• AMD K5 Processor Data Sheet; Publication #18522 Revision F/0; January 1997
• AMD5_k86 Processor Technical Reference Manual; Publication #18524 Revision B/0; March 1996
• AMD-K5 Processor Technical Reference Manual; Publication #18524 Revision C/0; November 1996

Thermal & Clock

• Clock Gating Recommendations; Publication #19195 Revision C/0; August 1995
• CPU Thermal Management; Publication #18448 Revision D/0; August 1995.
• Low Voltage Power Supply Circuits; Publication #19197 Revision D/0; August 1995.
• Phase Lock Loop (PLL) Clock Control; Publication #18495 Revision D/0; August 1995.

Other

• AMD K5 PROCESSOR Software Development Guide; Publication #20007 Revision D/0; September 1996

PR

• AMD-K5 Processor Performance Brief; Publication #20084 Revision B/0; June, 1996.

See also

• K6
• Pentium
• Pentium Pro