Shows how the Athlon processor beats Pentium in performance and popularity.
Advanced Micro Device’s Athlon was introduced in 1999 as a direct challenge to the performance and popularity of the Pentium III processor. The paper shows that, to the surprise of many, the Athlon has met those challenges and more. Subsequent releases and enhancements like the Athlon Thunderbird and the latest 1.2 GHz processor have been just as successful. The paper shows that, while Intel’s Pentium may have held a dominating lead for the last several years, Athlon’s superior FPU unit and higher clocking frequencies have now placed it in the front of the line as the fastest processor available. The paper includes a table.
Without a doubt, AMD’s Athlon holds many advantages for today’s computer users who are looking for speed and integrity in a system processor. However, both the Athlon and Pentium can be considered in a state of perpetual transition. Currently, the 200 MHz bus offered by the Athlon is exceptional, but still does not support multiprocessing or AGP 4X, which the Pentium IV is expected to do (Athlon).