Computer Components Memory: RAM/ROM History of AMD AMD Products AMD vs. P4 Bibliography

2. Computer Components • Memory: RAM/ROM • History of AMD • AMD Products • AMD vs. P4 • Bibliography

3. Computer Components • CPU – Central Processing Unit • CPU Fan – Cooling System • Motherboard – Chipset, Battery, BIOS • HDD – Hard Disk Drive • VGA – Video Graphics Adapter • PSU – Power Supply Unit 1

4. Computer Components • MEMORY • RAM (Random Access Memory): Also known as the “main memory”. On the motherboard there are a number of slots, these slots can have anything from 30 to 168 pins. Modern RAM is now separated into three different types: SDRAM is an older memory type, that is cheaper than the others but does not provide as good performance. DDRRAM is now standard on new systems, it offers the best performance and makes a computer run a lot smoother than the SDRAM. The newest type of RAM is called RAMBUS this is much more expensive than both SD and DDR and can only perform well on Pentium 4 systems, and must be used in pairs. • 8 bits make-up a byte • Roughly 1000 bytes equals a kilobyte (KB), exactly 1024 bytes • Megabyte (MB), about a million bytes, (actually 1024 bytes times 1024 bytes or 1,048,576 bytes) • Gigabyte (GB), roughly a billion bytes ( 1,073,741,824 bytes) • Terabyte (TB), approximately a trillion bytes (1,099,511,627,776 bytes) • ROM(Read Only Memory): This memory can not be altered and is usually small and integrated in the motherboard. This is the memory in which the start-up instructions (boot) are stored. The CMOS memory holds the hardware configuration and is battery powered to retain its contents and the cache Memory is used to store data that the processor “anticipates” will be needed next-data or instructions that are repeated over and over. 2

5. History of AMD In May 1969, a man called Jerry Sanders, with the help of seven friends completed their mission to start a successful semi-conductor company that supplied electronic equipment for communication, computing and instrumentation markets. By September that same year AMD had raised enough money to start production of their first products and finally moved to a proper office (a change from Sander's living room) and its first permanent home. The first string of products were other companies design, only made more faster and efficient. Thankfully the company got of its feet and by the end of 1974 they had 1500 employees, making over 200 different products and making $26.5 million dollars of annual sales. In 1972 AMD went public and issued 525,000 shares at $15 a share. By 1979 they were in the New York Stock Market. In AMD’s next five years of production they would turn over some $168 million dollars, with an annual growth of 60%. During this period assembly facilities were constructed in Manila and the Philippines. In 1976 Intel signs a cross-license agreement and Siemens is now affiliated with AMD. The 1980’s was a great time for AMD, their sales had doubled in one year, their chips flew on the Columbia Space Shuttle and in 19858 they made it into the top 100 for the best companies to work for in America. In 1993 the AMD-K5 processor is released, a new CPU that breaks the Intel dominance in the market. The AMD-K6 is released in 1995 and exceeds all the expectations that was set out by AMD, it is the basis for the phenomenal Athlon CPU. The must anticipated AMD Athlon CPU is released in 1999 has an enormous affect on Intel and other competitors. The Athlon is the first AMD CPU that uses its own chipset and motherboard, among other great achievements with the company and the world market, the highlight were; Being the first CPU to reach the historic mark of 1Ghz (1000MHz) and winning over 100 awards worldwide. The last four years for AMD has been their most exciting, with the release of the high-performance Athlon XP+ CPU, the Athlon MP, specifically made for servers and workstations with dual processor capabilities and AMD making a profit of over 1 billion dollars in the first quarter of 2000, for the first time. The newest arrival for AMD is the Athlon XP+ 3000, a CPU running at 2.167 GHz and a massive 512k cache. 3

6. AMD CPUs • K-5 – The first CPU for AMD • K-6 – A dominating CPU of it’s time and exceeded expectations • AMD-Athlon – 1st CPU to reach 1Ghz, used same slot as PIII (slot A/I) • AMD-Duron – Cheaper CPU, good for a budget, up to 1.3Ghz • AMD-Athlon XP+ - Best performing CPU for AMD, designed for Windows 2000/XP. Extremely precise multimedia playing and recording. Fastest clock speed is 2.250Ghz, the Athlon XP 2800+ • AMD-Athlon MP – Specifically made for severs and workstations, dual processor capabilities, newest arrival. The most expensive AMD CPU 4

7. AMD vs. P4 • K-5 started the Pentium and AMD battle • Athlon XP+ is the best AMD CPU • P4 is the best Intel CPU • 2600 XP+ is the best all rounder, with 238fps on QIII in 1280x1024 in 32 bit color and in Unreal Tournament its performed with 194 fps in 1024x768 in 32 bit color. Multimedia score are incomparable to P4 • The P4 2.53Ghz is a gaming machine with low multimedia performance and higher gaming results. The results are as follows: QIII in 640x480 has a massive 265fps (compared with AMD’s 256) and a respectable 157fps UT score. 5 All testing done with 512 DDR RAM, 128 Mb VGA, 80Gb HDD, 17” Monitor and Windows XP

8. Bibliography • Books • Australian PC User February 2003 • Australian PC User March 2003 • Australian PC User April 2003 • Websites • www.amd.com 6