At the beginning of June 2000, AMD decided to give its own program a new attraction and to retire the aging clowns of the first generation. Here comes the original text from the year 2000 by Armin Lenz. It appeared in issue zero, the legendary test edition of PC Games Hardware.
While the classic Athlon was still able to compete successfully with the Pentium III, when the gigahertz limit was reached at the latest, it was foreseeable that Intel would again have a first-class number in its program with the Coppermine. So AMD decided to let the “Athlon with performance-enhancing cache memory”, codenamed Thunderbird, out of the cage. However, it will continue to be sold simply under the Athlon name. The distinguishing feature was a yellow, jagged sticker on complete systems, with individual processors the new socketed design.
The core of the poodle is quickly described. Instead of the 512 KiByte L2 cache, which in the old Athlon was soldered in external components with the processor onto a slot A circuit board, there is now a 256 KiByte L2 cache that is packed directly onto the processor. This process already made the AMD K6-III superior to the K6-2. The advantages are manifold: the buffer memory can be operated on the chip with the full processor clock and a wider data path, instead of being tied to commercially available cache chips with a maximum clock of 340 MHz.
By shortening the lines, access to the information becomes faster. Instead of 21 bars of waiting time (latency) for requests, there are now only eleven. This greatly speeds up small data transfers such as triangular coordinates for game engines. To compensate for the smaller amount of memory, AMD ensures that the L1 and L2 cache do not store copies of the same information.
Depending on the clock frequency, the real increase in performance is about one to two clock steps (50 to 100 MHz) above the Athlon Classic and thus on par with an optimally configured Coppermine. However, this depends on the game tested and the system configuration, especially the memory used. If the critical parts of the game engine can be kept in the cache, then they do their rounds extremely quickly. If, on the other hand, the data has to travel through the entire storage system, the RAM slows it down to a greater or lesser extent.
AMD Athlon Thunderbird
What: AMD
What: AMD
Quelle: PC Games Hardware
Quelle: PC Games Hardware
By relocating the cache to the processor, the slot board becomes superfluous and thus an unnecessary cost factor. Consequently, the new Athlon will only be available to end customers as a Socket A version. Within three months, the slot should no longer be found in new computers. Only a few copies of a slotted Thunderbird go exclusively to computer manufacturers to make old motherboard stocks happy. None of these are intended for the end trade – an annoying dead end for hopeful upgraders. After VIA knocked the KX133 out of the race anyway due to an incompatibility with the “Thunderbird”, AMD’s proven AMD750 “Irongate” and the VIA KT133 (formerly KZ133) will build the Socket-A-Manege.
The strength of the KT133 is the PC133 memory, which provides more RAM bandwidth for the CPU and AGP4X in direct comparison. In the medium term, however, other chipset manufacturers, e.g. B. Ali registered with DDR RAM support and SiS with the integrated 730S chipset for the socket A. First motherboards are expected from MSI, QDI and Epox. In the tough gaming comparison with Intel’s flagship horse, the Gigahertz Coppermine, the chip giant has to pull out all the stops to go head to head with the Thunderbird. That means an Intel820 chipset and RAMBUS memory (just one bar, please, otherwise performance will drop by 20 percent). On the other hand, the Intel chip doesn’t have much to smile about when it works with cheap PC133 memory and a VIA chipset, it’s clearly a home game for the Thunderbird from Dresden.
This is where the new Intel “Solano” chipset has to come to the rescue. The new attraction in the processor arena basically requires excellent cooling. You should definitely invest in a high-quality cooler in order not to melt the good piece. Real stars demand special treatment. All in all: deserved applause for the Thunderbird.
My opinion
The “Thunderbird” was still a CPU for daredevils. No bells and whistles like SSE on board, there was also no emergency shutdown in the event of overheating – that’s what killed a Thunderbird of the last generation with a clock speed of at least 1.4 gigahertz. In any case, AMD made a name for itself with this CPU and put a lot of pressure on Intel.
