It doesn't seem so long ago but it is a short two months from the four year anniversary of the launch of AMD's Opteron processor. A bold move that broke away from Intel more so than even the K7 that allowed AMD to take the lead in 64-bit technology, feature an integrated memory controller, dual-core processors which brought SMP into the mainstream while not losing performance, the hypertransport bus, and to not even consider the slow and poor performing RAMBUS but to stick with DDR. For the next three years AMD clobbered Intel across price, performance, power usage, and is regarded as one of the most pivotal moments in the microprocessor industry, bringing true competition back to the playing ground. Quite simply AMD rolled the dice and it paid off big and if it had not been so successful they might not be around here today or be the purchased, not the purchaser of a new company. However, since July of 2006 they haven't been able to claim rights to the fastest processor on the market and in almost no time the industry has started to lean towards Intel again with most hardware enthusiasts and even some companies quickly turning their back. The fight is far from over and AMD is sure to come back strong this June with a new generation of processors but for now there is at least one more processor to come out of the excellent K8 generation and what might be its swan song, the AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+.



Link: AMD Zone