Advanced Micro Devices Inc says its 64-bit K7 processor will tape out imminently, and that it will begin volume production of the Intel x86-compatible part next year. It will describe K7 in detail at Microprocessor Forum in the fall. AMD says it’s currently investigating whether it could build a K8 Merced-killer for high-end systems using technology from DEC’s Alpha, the RISC it has been granted full intellectual property rights to as part of the US Federal Trade Commission’s decision to allow Intel corp to buy DEC’s Alpha fabs. AMD is also examining how it could apply its own K series RISC core to this design. It says it hasn’t made any product decisions yet. K7 is the third generation of the company’s CPU family since it its technology sharing agreement with Intel ended with its 80486-compatible part. K5 and the current K6 use AMD’s proprietary RISC instruction set which converts to run x86 instructions. K7 includes AMD’s 3Dnow! 3D graphics technology and the company is positioning K7 as a superior alternative to Intel processors due mid-next year that will incorporate the Katmai or MMX-2 multimedia extensions. AMD has already licensed Alpha’s EV6 bus for K7 which it says will give K7 users greater performance and bandwidth than equivalent Intel parts. K7 uses Intel’s Slot 1 connector but the electrical interface is the Alpha bus. In theory K7 could use chipsets and motherboards designed for use with Alpha but AMD says that’s not very likely. AMD’s is aiming to have a 30% market share by 2000. It counts Compaq and IBM as its biggest customers. If AMD were to produce a viable Alpha-based K8 Merced-class device, DEC’s new owner Compaq could of course choose to up the stakes and take K8 to market against Intel to which it has no love lost for.
