June turned out to be a significant month for AMD. Firstly June saw the release of the new Athlon "Thunderbird" processor, which incorporated "256 Kb of performance enhancing cache". Coupled to this release was the emergence of the new Socket A (or Socket 462) CPU interface, replacing the existing Slot A connector which has been in use since the introduction of the Athlon in August 1999. This new interface also saw the emergence of new chipsets from VIA including the KT133, KM133 and KL133, which replace the existing Slot A compatible KX133 chipset.

The next stage of AMD's strategy sees the release of it's new processor for the budget PC market, the Duron. This chip is based upon the same K7 core as the Athlon "Thunderbird", but features one main difference, a smaller Level 2 cache.

AMD Duron, What's new?

The Duron represents AMD's new processor strategy based wholly upon it's K7 technology. Here we see the separation of performance and value segment processors based upon the same core. Whilst the Athlon "Thunderbird" attacks the high-end PC market, the Duron is likely to be targeted at the sub-£1000 PC market. To achieve this, AMD had to make one main difference between it's Athlon "Thunderbird" and Duron processors.

The main difference between the two chips comes in the form of the Level 2 cache used by both. Whilst the Athlon "Thunderbird" uses 256 Kb, the Duron will make do with only a quarter of that amount, 64 kb. Luckily for the Duron it still retains the same 128 Kb Level 1 cache which contributes to the impressive performance of the Athlon and Athlon "Thunderbird".

The Duron is manufactured using AMD's 0.18 micron process at it's Austin Texas fabrication plant. It will use the current Aluminium (Al) interconnect technology, and not the new Copper (Cu) interconnect technology as used by Athlon's from the new Dresden FAB 30 in Germany.

An interesting aside, it is possible to tell the difference between Aluminium and Copper interconnect Athlon processors from their colour. Apparently those made at the Austin Texas facility have a dark green colour due to the washing solution used during the manufacturing process. This contrasts with the slightly lighter green (with a blue tint) of the processors made at AMD's new FAB 30 in Dresden, due to their use of a different washing solution.

Unlike Intel's Celeron processor, the Duron is not just a version of it's larger sibling which just has a portion of it's Level 2 cache disabled. The Duron is manufactured using a different core as opposed to the Athlon "Thunderbird", which is only 100 mm square as opposed to 120 mm square for the Athlon. This results in a cost saving for AMD as it is able to cut more Duron processors from the same silicon wafer as opposed to it's larger Athlon sibling. This also contrasts with Intel which is unable to gain such a cost advantage from the new 0.18 micron Celeron, as it is based upon the same core as the "Coppermine" Pentium III, which then needs further work to disable the 128 Kb Level 2 cache which will not be needed.

The Duron will run at Clock Speeds of 600 MHz, 650 MHz, 700 and 750 MHz at it's launch. This is designed to ensure that it does not overlap with the 750 MHz plus running speeds of it's larger sibling, the Athlon "Thunderbird". AMD does not want to repeat the situation Intel found itself in when it's Celeron 366 and 400 started to win sales away from the 350 and 400 MHz Pentium II processors, thus hurting their profits.

The Duron will also be fully compatible with the 200 MHz EV6 (100 MHz Double Data Rate) bus as used by all Athlon processors to date. This compares to the contrained 66 MHz bus as used by Duron's main rival, the Celeron.

To see the effect of the Duron's 64 Kb Level 2 cache changes have, read on...

Athlon Thunderbird - Page 2.