New CPUs from AMD and Intel

The Quick Specs

AMD K6-3

• 0.25 micron chip
• CXT core plus 256 kB on-die second level cache running at core clock frequency
• Plugs into Socket 7
• Socket 7 on-board cache turns from second to third-level cache
• 3DNow! floating point SIMD instructions, two pipelines that can operate two 32 bit single precision floating point numbers at the same time, thus 4 32-bit single precision FP numbers can be computed synchronously.
• voltage 2.3-2.5 V, depending on core, marked on the chip
• runs in any Socket7-board that can offer 2.3-2.5 V at a high current, board requires BIOS that recognizes K6-3
• available at clock speeds of 350, 400 and 450 MHz
• 3DNow! supported by DirectX 6 and up

Intel Pentium III

• 0.25 micron chip
• Katmai core, modified Deschutes core with SSE
• Plugs into Slot 1
• 512 kB external second level cache running at half the processor clock frequency, found inside the processor cartridge and thus coming with the CPU
• SECC2 package
• SSE floating point SIMD instructions, one pipeline that can operate four 32 bit single precision floating point numbers at the same time, thus 4 32-bit single precision FP numbers can be computed synchronously.
• Voltage 2 V
• Runs in any Slot1 board, board requires BIOS that recognizes Pentium III and supplies correct micro code update
• Available at clock speeds of 450 and 500 MHz, possibly 550 MHz, but I got different information on this topic. One official Intel source says the PIII 550 will be releases on February 26, the other official source tells me that it will be sometimes in Q2/1999.
• SSE supported by DirectX 6.1 and up