THG Visits AMD: The First PCs With The Hammer CPU

Future Perspective: The Latest AMD Roadmap

The AMD roadmap for 2002 and 2003.

The latest AMD roadmap shows that the manufacturer will soon be making CPUs based on the 0.13 micron process. The first CPUs for 64 bit computing, the Claw Hammer, has just been completed using the SOI process and 0.13-technology.

After this, AMD plans to launch the server version of the Hammer, the Sledge Hammer. However, there's still time for that, because ultimately, Intel won't be making such giant steps with its Itanium (or McKinley) either.

Conclusion: The First Working Claw Hammer Systems

Our brief visit with AMD was well worth it - we were able to evaluate two PC systems that were equipped with a Claw Hammer processor. For both of the systems, the AMD "Solo 2" motherboard served as the basis. The "Solo 2" is built on the 8000 chipset, which consists of the Northbridge AMD-8151 and the Southbridge AMD-8111.

AMD did not want to give us further details about the exact clock speed of the CPU, nor did they give us details on the performance under Linux and Windows XP (32 bit version). Nevertheless, we are still looking forward to seeing the first "Claw Hammer" PC systems from the production line.