AMD has a long history in microprocessor design and manufacturing. Their first CPU was a clone of the Intel 8080 microprocessor back in 1980. They really came into the fray with their K6 series which introduced AMD Multimedia Extensions to the CPU called 3DNow! The The K7 was called the Athlon XP and introduced 256kB of full-speed Level 2 cache to AMD CPUs (Previously, the cache was ½ speed).

AMD went 64-bit with the introduction of the Socket 940 platform and the Opteron in 1993.The Socket 940 CPUs were expensive, powerful but not geared to the consumer and the Socket 754 was released in 1993 with single channel memory to bring 64-bit gaming to the mainstream. AMD brought the Socket 939 was released to the consumer market in 2004. Socket 939 has been the standard by which all AMD CPUs released in the last year have been made.

Today, AMD is launching their next generation CPU, the AM2 platform. There are several advantages AM2 will have over the 939 platform: DDR2 memory controller, lower wattage, similar performance to the 939 versions of the same CPU and new chipsets from ATI, NVIDIA, SIS and VIA. It’s going to be an interesting launch.