AMD K7 = XP?

[Nimra]

I'm a little confused, is the K7 chip the same as the Athlon XP? What about the K6, is it the same as a Duron?

Thanks

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[pIII_Man]

i dont beleive they ever made a cpu called the k7 they did make a k5 and a k6 cpu...they were actual cpu names...the k5 got its name because it was a 5th revision cpu (386, 486 then 586 or k5). Just as the k6 is a sixth generation cpu...about the k7 i gues you would call everything between the k6 to the opteron a k7 cpu as really not much has changed in amd cpu's other than die shrinks and new instruction set support...some would go as far to say that the opterons are k7 cores...but i would call them k8...

3 386DX-25's...12 volts...glue some ln2 and a wicked amount of overclocking and you get a willamantee minus 36 pins, 33.75 million transistors and a couple hundred mhz... 😎

 

[endyen]

When the Athlon first came out , they were dubbed K7 by the media. To a certain extent the name stuck until th XP procs came out. Most people who talk about K7s though, mean the slotties.

 

[slvr_phoenix]

When the Athlon first came out , they were dubbed K7 by the media. To a certain extent the name stuck until th XP procs came out. Most people who talk about K7s though, mean the slotties.

Actually, that's not really true.

The truth is that the whole Kn nomenclature is just as archaic and useless as the x86 nomenclature, but still technically underlies Intel's and AMD's CPUs.

Since Intel couldn't trademark '80586' because it was just a model number, they named their version of the 80586 the <i>Pent</i>ium. AMD, decided to follow suit and named their version of the 80586 the K<i>5</i>. Then Intel decided that it didn't want to lose their well-recognized brand name when they shifted to the 80686, so instead of calling it a Sexium it kept the Pentium brand name for their 80686 line. (That's marketing for you, referring to an 80<b>6</b>86 chip as 'five'.) AMD simply called their version of 80686 a K6.

Then when AMD realized that Intel's brand name concept was actually proving to be quite successful and useful they decided to copy Intel and officially named their K7 an Athlon. Technically the Athlon is both Athlon and K7, just as it is also a Thunderbird, a Thoroughbred, a Barton, or whatever. The K7 is the reference to AMD's x86 generation. The Barton is the reference to the specific core revision of the K7 generation. The Athlon is the reference to the end-market product name created for brand recognition. They're all valid names for the same product because they all technically mean completely different things even though they're all related by being involved in the same end product.

(And just like the Celeron is the cut-down version of the Pentium for budget PCs using the same x86 architecture, the Duron is the cut-down version of the Athlon using the same x86 architecture.)

The new K8, being an actual processor conceptualization change, is a reference to AMD's version of an 80886. We (as end-market purchasers) know this product as the Athlon64 and/or Opteron.

So reference to the K7 as being just the old slot-format Athlons is in actuality merely vernacular. And like any vernacular, the meanings significantly change depending upon which society uses that vernacular. In some places groups of people will call an old slot-format Athlon a K7 and mean nothing more. This is very wrong, but vernacular, like slang, is hardly ever technically accurate in the first place. In other places (the more common usage in fact) the K7 is properly used as any chip which falls into AMD's 80768 generation of CPUs, ranging from the first Athlons all the way to the AthlonXP/MP/-M, but not including the Athlon64.

"<i>Let's see what <b>Paragraph 84-B</b> has to say about it.</i>" - Thief from <A HREF="http://www.nuklearpower.com/daily.php?date=030724" target="_new">8-Bit Theater</A>

 

[pIII_Man]

jeez you explain it much beter than i do...in fact naming this way is not limited to amd and intel...

cyrix, nexgen and all other x86 cpu manufacturers used to name their cores my the generation of cpu they were using...some processors were even called the 5x86...or the 6x86 just based on their core although there was no intel cpu named 5x86...

In fact the reason intel switched over to their pentium naming scheme is because they had a lawsuite with amd and basically the court ruled that intel could not tradmark the model number of their cpu...

3 386DX-25's...12 volts...glue some ln2 and a wicked amount of overclocking and you get a willamantee minus 36 pins, 33.75 million transistors and a couple hundred mhz... 😎

 

[Nimra]

Thank you guys. And thank YOU Phoenix - omg what an encyclopedia you are.

I'm finally a peace with the issue. Not I can bitchslap my friends next time they want to argue with me about this

 

[slvr_phoenix]

**ROFL** That's what we're here for, to help you slap around your friends.

...

Err ... I mean to answer your questions. 😉

"<i>Let's see what <b>Paragraph 84-B</b> has to say about it.</i>" - Thief from <A HREF="http://www.nuklearpower.com/daily.php?date=030724" target="_new">8-Bit Theater</A>