Main Products

Intel

The product line of Intel comprises of:

Microprocessors: The Pentium line, Celeron and Core. Latest innovations include the Core i7-980X Extreme Edition with 6 physical and 12 logical cores. Servers: Intel has chipsets, motherboards, software, memory and many more solutions for servers.

Motherboards: Intel Serverseries and Intel Workstation series for servers and the Intel Desktop board for Desktops. Others: Intel manufacturers many communication and memory solution equipment and software for Desktops and Notebooks also.

AMD

Microprocessors: The Athlon variety, X2, K10, X2, AMD Opteron.

Servers: Processors of the Opteron like are available for servers also.

Motherboards: The AMD Crossfire series are available in this line along with many others.

Others: AMD recently acquired a leading video card manufacturer and is promising more advanced video capabilities coded into new versions of their motherboards. It also offers software and memory solutions for businesses.

Cost

AMD is said to offer the same basic product at a cheaper price than Intel. Intel is established as the market leader in producing motherboards and processing chips for personal computers, and their prices and development have influenced AMD from the start. AMD produced “clones” of Intel products as well as their own line of chip and motherboard development. The AMD Athlon XP processor runs very close to an Intel 4 processor and is about half the price. Some price comparisons of similar products by the two companies are listed below:

Intel Core 2 Quad 775

Q6600 / 2.40GHz Socket 775 1066MHz $279.99 Q6600 / 2.40GHz Socket 775 1066MHz $289.99 Q6700 / 2.66GHz Socket 775 1066MHz $579.99 Q6700 / 2.66GHz Socket 775 1066MHz $579.99

Intel Core 2 Extreme 775

QX6700 / 2.66GHz Socket 775 1066MHz $1059.99 QX6700 / 2.66GHz Socket 775 1066MHz $1059.99 QX6800 / 2.93GHz Socket 775 1066MHz $1069.99 QX6800 / 2.93GHz Socket 775 1066MHz $1069.99 AMD Athlon 64 X2(AM2)

X2 4000+ / 2.10GHz Socket AM2 1000MHz (2000 MT/s) $69.99 X2 4200+ / 2.20GHz Socket AM2 1000MHz (2000 MT/s) $82.99 X2 BE-2300 / 1.90GHz Socket AM2 1000MHz (2000 MT/s) $89.99 X2 4400+ / 2.30GHz Socket AM2 1000MHz (2000 MT/s) $92.99

AMD Athlon 64 X2(939)

X2 3800+ / 2.00GHz Socket 939 1000MHz (2000 MT/s) $59.99 X2 3800+ / 2.00GHz Socket 939 1000MHz (2000 MT/s) $59.99 X2 4200+ / 2.20GHz Socket 939 1000MHz (2000 MT/s) $69.99

(Source: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/Category/category_cpu.asp )

History

Timeline of Microprocessers

The Seventies The seventies were a good time for intel, mostly because they were the first players in the game. Motorola jumped in rapidly thereafter, however, and brought out the ubiquitous 6800 and later the even more important 68000 during the same timeframe. Intel got there first, and got the ball rolling. A great deal of their installed base comes from the fact that the IBM PC and every clone of it thereafter carried an intel CPU. 1971: 4004 (intel) Used in the Busicom calculator. First microprocessor. 4 bits, 2300 transistors, 740 kHz, 0.06 MIPS. 1972: 8008 (intel) Used in the Mark-8. 1974: 8080 (intel) Used in the Altair. 1976: 8085 (intel) Improved version of the 8080; uses only +5V, where 8080 needs several voltages, and with additional instructions as well. 1978: 8086 (intel) Used (later) in the IBM PC. Also, the complementary 8087 math coprocessor. 1979: 8088 (intel) Cost reduced 8086, with an 8 bit bus instead of 16 bit.

The Eighties The 1980s, the digital age. This is the time when everything exploded. All the chips we love (and love to hate) were born here -- the 286 (possibly intel's most crippled chip in its time); the 68020 which was not only a big step forward from the 68000 for its instruction set, but also for being the first 32 bit processor; 1981: 80186 and 80188 (Intel) x86-compatible, primarily used in embedded systems as they contain DMA and timer circuits. 1982: 80286 (intel) Used in the IBM PC-AT. (February 1, 1982) 1986: 80386 (intel). x86 goes 32 bit. 1988: 80386SX (Intel) Cheaper alternative to the 386DX, it uses a 16 bit time-multiplexed bus to perform 32 bit data transfers (in two cycles) at a cost in memory bandwidth. (June 16, 1988) 1989: 80486 (intel) New 32 bit processor, and the last Intel-made x86 processor that is not internally RISC. (April 10, 1989)

The Nineties This is where home computers began to really have the "juice" to wow people. Intel brought out the Pentium followed by the Pentium MMX, Pentium 2, and the Pentium 3, and all were huge hits. AMD got into the high-power game with several RISC CPUs which would interpret x86 instructions: K5, K6, and Athlon. The Athlon got them into a serious battle with intel over CPU supremacy, which pretty much brings us to our current situation - Everyone making a significant CPU today has enough power to stay in the race. 1991: Am386 (AMD) Breaks the intel 32 bit x86 monopoly. 1991: 486SX (Intel) 486 processor with no onboard FPU. Introduced as a low-cost budget processor; originals are actually remarked 486DX chips with faulty FPUs disabled. (April 22, 1991) 1993: Pentium P54C (intel) Intel begins to use some RISC style processing. First superscalar x86-family processor. 1993: Am486 (AMD) 1995: Pentium Pro (intel) A great deal of added cache. Sets the stage for the Pentium 2 (whose design is largely based on the PPro) and Pentium MMX (P55C). 1996: K5 (AMD) AMD's first Internally-RISC x86-compatible processor. Basically a 486 on steroids, and intended to compete with the Pentium. (March 27, 1996) 1997: Pentium MMX P55C (Intel) Pentium with MMX added. 1997: Pentium 2 (Intel) Based on the Pentium Pro, and carrying the MMX features of the P55C. First x86 processor on a module, with cache on the PC board. (All former x86 CPUs utilize L2 cache on the motherboard.) 1997: K6 (AMD) First Pentium 2 competitor, based on a RISC design with an x86 translation layer. Suffers due to slow and incompatible (24 as opposed to 32 bit) FPU. (April 2, 1997) 1998: Pentium 2 Xeon (Intel) Where the P2's L2 cache runs at half speed, the Xeon's runs at full speed, and is available from 512 kb to 8 mb. 1998: Pentium 2 Deschutes (Intel) Process shrink to .25µm. 1998: K6-2 (AMD) Updated version of K6 CPU with multimedia functions ("3DNow!") and a 32-bit FPU. (May 28, 1998) 1999: Celeron (Intel) Bargain version of the Pentium 2. Early versions have no L2 cache; Later versions have a reduced amount of L2 (128kb) which runs at full speed rather than the P2's half speed. 1999: Pentium 3 (Intel) Based on the P2's design, new core. Substantially faster than P2. Adds additional SIMD extensions beyond MMX. 1999: Athlon (AMD) AMD's competitor to Pentium 2. Features 100MHz DDR bus for three times the bus bandwidth of intel CPUs (compared to then-current 66MHz Pentium 2 bus.) Intel Pentium chipsets later feature 100MHz bus (non-DDR.) 1999: K6-3 (AMD) Last revision in K6 line, improves speed of multimedia functions and makes new clock rates available. The 2000's Now, in the 21st century, the race continues. AMD and intel have essentially equivalent juggernauts which for the first time (Beginning in the 90s with the coexistence of Pentium 3 and Athlon) compete directly and strongly with one another. Meanwhile, both companies have 64 bit designs with instruction sets based on x86, and the outcome of that match is as unclear as the outcome of Pentium 4 vs. Athlon XP. 2000: Pentium 4 (Intel) Less efficient than P3 cycle for cycle, with a harsher penalty for incorrect branch prediction (due to a longer pipeline), but supports much higher clock rates partly due to finer (.18 micron) process and partly due to the longer pipeline. Bus speeds increase to as much as 533MHz in order to compete with Athlons. 2000: XP and Athlon MP (AMD) Full speed L2 cache, and a new 133MHz DDR bus (equivalent to 266MHz.) MP is "designed" for multiprocessor use. 2001: itanium (Intel) Intel's first 64 bit CPU. Low clock rates (through 2002) but true 64 bit. Computing(EPIC). Uses a new instruction set, IA-64, which not is based on x86. Extremely poor at emulating x86. 2002: itanium 2 (Intel) Supports higher clock rates than itanium and has a shorter pipeline to reduce the cost of a bad branch prediction. 2002: XScale (Intel) StrongARM II. Tight, fast embedded processor which uses the ARM instruction set. Based on StrongARM, which was purchased from Compaq after they acquired Digital, who made the chip in conjunction with Acorn. (See StrongARM, above.) 2003: Opteron/Athlon 64 (AMD) AMD's x86-64 processors, collectively code named "Hammer". Opteron has more cache and two hypertransport (HT) links per CPU, allowing for glue-less SMP; Athlon 64 has one. A mobile (low power) version is also available. There are a number of revisions, starting with "ClawHammer" (130nm) Memory controller is on-die, so hypertransport only has to handle communication with peripherals, and memory attached to other CPUs. (NUMA architecture.) 2003: Pentium M (Intel) See also: Centrino. Formerly code-named Banias, this is an advanced low-power rehash of the Pentium 3 processor, more efficient than Pentium 4. Intel announced that multi-core Pentium M processors would take over for the P4, whose scalability is running out. 2004: Athlon XP-M (AMD) Low-power version of the Athlon XP processor, the slowest (2700+) part draws 35W with 512kB L2 cache. 2005: Athlon 64 X2 (AMD) First dual-core 64 bit desktop processor.

Litigation

AMD has a long history of litigation with former partner and x86 creator Intel. In 1986 Intel broke an agreement it had with AMD to allow them to produce Intel's micro-chips for IBM; AMD filed for arbitration in 1987 and the arbitrator decided in AMD's favor in 1992. Intel disputed this, and the case ended up in the California. In 1994, that court upheld the arbitrator's decision and awarded damages for breach of contract. In 1990, Intel brought a copyright infringement action alleging illegal use of its 287 microcode. The case ended in 1994 with a jury finding for AMD and its right to use Intel's microcode in its microprocessors through the 486 generation. In 1997, Intel filed suit against AMD and Corp. for misuse of the term MMX. AMD and Intel settled, with AMD acknowledging MMX as a trademark owned by Intel, and with Intel granting AMD rights to market the AMD K6 MMX processor. In 2005, following an investigation, the Japan Federal Trade Commission found Intel guilty on a number of violations. On June 27, 2005, AMD won an antitrust suit against Intel in Japan, and on the same day, AMD filed a broad antitrust complaint against Intel in the Court in Delaware. The complaint alleges systematic use of secret rebates, special discounts, threats, and other means used by Intel to lock AMD processors out of the global market. Since the start of this action, AMD has issued subpoenas to major computer manufacturers including Dell, Microsoft, IBM, HP, Sony, and Toshiba.

Competition and Market Share

Intel is the inventor of the x86 series of Microprocessors and today both AMD and Intel are competitors at this. While Intel is said to be the largest producer of x86 based processors in the world, AMD is number two in it. Intel came out of 2006 with 77.7 per cent of the x86 CPU market, up from 76.3 per cent. Its 1.4 percentage point gain matched a 1.4 percentage point decline in AMD's x86 market share, which fell from 2005's 23.7 per cent to 22.3 per cent.

References

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