From Dresden with Love

Copper Anyone?

Chips with AMD's new processor core with the on-die L2 cache will be manufactured at AMD's Fab 30 in Dresden, Germany. All AMD Athlon processors with on-die L2 cache will feature copper interconnects instead of the usual aluminum today's processors use. AMD obtained the HiPL6 copper interconnect technology in an agreement with Motorola, and both companies will work together on future copper interconnect based technologies. Intel doesn't plan on using copper until it moves to the 0.13 micron process in 2001

The Chips

AMD is planning to have three different CPU lines based on integrated L2 cache and copper interconnect technology. Much like Intel's three pronged, Celeron/Pentium III/Xeon attack, AMD will also target three different consumer markets with the "Thunderbird," "Spitfire," and "Mustang."

The Athlon based Thunderbird will be AMD's answer to Intel's vanilla P3. The Thunderbird will feature the integrated L2 cache running at full core speed, and will be available in both the Slot-A and Socket-A formats. Like the P3, the Thunderbird will target the mid-range desktop market.

For the entry level market, AMD has the Spitfire. The Spitfire will also feature an integrated L2 cache, but it won't be as large as the Thunderbird's. Early reports state that the Spitfire will only be available in the Socket-A format. Sound familiar? Intel plans on moving the Celeron processor to the Coppermine core, but the Celeron processors will only feature 128KB of integrated L2 cache, half of the P3's 256KB. The Spitfire will compete head to head with the Celeron in the sub-$1000 PC market.

Last but not least, AMD has the Mustang for the server level market. The Mustang will have a reduced core size and up to 2MB of on-die L2 cache. The Mustang should be able to run in two, four, or eight chip multiprocessor configurations. AMD is clearly gunning for Intel's Xeon processor with the Mustang.

AMD plans on releasing these processors in the second half of this year, but just last week AMD demonstrated a 1.1GHz Athlon that was manufactured in the Dresden Fab. Of course, Intel answered back with a 1.5GHz Williamette demonstration earlier this week at IDF.