X86 Still strong after twenty years

19 years. That’s a long time in real life, even longer in computing terms. The first x86 CPU was the Intel 8086 which was introduced in 1981 and utilized a 16-bit data bus.. Since then we’ve had numerous CPUs including the 80386 which introduced 32-bit addressing on CPUs and the 80586 (the Pentium). But all Intel CPUs are based off the 32-bit address first introduced with the 80386.

Sure there have been improvements including MMX instructions, SSE instructions, and SSE2 instructions, but in terms of data bus Intel hasn’t moved from the 32 bit data bus since 1985 for the consumer market. They have released the IA-64 for servers but don’t plan on moving to the 64-bit bus for consumers for a while yet.

AMD has been making CPUs for a long time. Their first CPU was the 8080a in 1975. Their first 32-bit chip was the 29300 in 1986. But Intel dominated the CPU market back in ancient history of the 1980s to 1991, when AMD released the AM386 microprocessor. This was the first 32-bit competitor to Intel’s X86-line. Since then, AMD has introduced many CPUs including an Am486, the K6, the K6-2, the Athlon (K7) in 1999, and the Athlon XP in 2001.

AMD CPU’s have supported Intel’s SSE instructions and MMX instructions. However, AMD introduced their own line of multimedia instructions called 3DNow and 3DNow+, which accelerate certain multimedia instructions. And their latest Athlon XP 3200+ CPUs don’t support Intel’s SSE2 instructions which have shown some proliferation. And their underlying architecture is still based on a 32-bit data bus.

Enter the 8th generation CPU, the Claw Hammer their first 64-bit CPU. In fact the Athlon 64 family (Opteron, Athlon 64 FX51, Athlon 64) are the first 64-bit CPUs for Windows PCs that reach a mainstream price point. Today AMD has a 64-bit CPU for virtually every market, workstations with the Opteron, high-end gaming with the Athlon 64 FX51 and mainstream to high end gaming with the Athlon 64.