
2
AMD-K6
-2 Processor
Chapter 1
AMD-K6
-2 Processor Data Sheet
21850I/0—December 1999
Preliminary Information
The AMD-K6-2 processor is the first to incorporate 3DNow! technology, a significant
innovation to the x86 processor architecture that drives today’s personal computers.
With 3DNow! technology, new, more powerful hardware and software applications
enable a more entertaining and productive PC platform. Improvements include fast
frame rates on high-resolution scenes, superior modeling of real world environments
and physics, life-like images and graphics, and big-screen sound and video.
AMD has taken a leadership role in developing new instructions that enable exciting
new levels of performance and realism. 3DNow! technology was defined and
implemented in collaboration with Microsoft
, application developers, and graphics
vendors, and has received an enthusiastic reception. It is compatible with today’s
existing x86 software, is supported by industry-standard APIs, and requires no
operating system support, thereby enabling a broad class of applications to benefit
from 3DNow! technology.
To provide state-of-the-art performance, the processor incorporates the innovative
and efficient RISC86
microarchitecture, a large 64-Kbyte level-one cache (32-Kbyte
dual-ported data cache, 32-Kbyte instruction cache with an additional 20-Kbytes of
predecode cache), a powerful IEEE 754-compatible and 854-compatible floating-point
execution unit, and a high-performance industry-standard multimedia execution unit
for executing MMX instructions. The processor includes additional
high-performance Single Instruction Multiple Data (SIMD) execution resources to
support the 3DNow! technology. These techniques have been combined to deliver
leading-edge performance on leading consumer and business applications in both the
Microsoft Windows
98 and Windows NT
operating environments.
The AMD-K6-2
processor’s 6-issue RISC86 microarchitecture is a decoupled
decode/execution superscalar design that implements state-of-the-art design
techniques to achieve leading-edge performance. Advanced design techniques
implemented in the AMD-K6-2 processor include multiple x86 instruction decode,
single-clock internal RISC operations, ten execution units that support superscalar
operation, out-of-order execution, data forwarding, speculative execution, and
register renaming. In addition, the processor supports advanced branch prediction
logic by implementing an 8192-entry branch history table, a branch target cache, and
a return address stack, which combine to deliver better than a 95% prediction rate.
These design techniques enable the AMD-K6-2 processor to issue, execute, and retire
multiple x86 instructions per clock, resulting in excellent scaleable performance.
The AMD-K6-2 processor is x86 binary code compatible. AMD’s extensive experience
through six generations of x86 processors has been carefully integrated into the
processor to enable compatibility with Windows 98, Windows 95, Windows 3.x,
Windows NT, DOS, OS/2, Unix, Solaris, NetWare
, Vines, and other leading x86
operating systems and applications. The AMD-K6-2 processor is Super7 and
Socket7-compatible. The Super7 platform is an extension to today’s popular and
robust Socket 7 platform. See “Super7 Platform Initiative” for more information.