AMD released the third major Athlon version on October 9, 2001, code-named "Palomino", and named it Athlon XP. The Athlon XP was marketed using a PR system, which compared its performance to an Athlon with the "Thunderbird" core. Athlon XP was introduced at speeds between 1333 and 1533 MHz, with ratings from 1500+ to 1800+. At launch, the new core allowed AMD to take the x86 performance lead with the 1800+ model, and enhance that lead with the release of the 1600 MHz 1900+ less than a month later.[13] The "XP" suffix is interpreted to mean eXtreme Performance and also as an unofficial reference to Windows XP.[14]
Palomino was the first K7 core to include the full SSE instruction set from the Intel Pentium III as well as AMD's 3DNow! Professional. It is roughly 10% faster than Thunderbird at the same clock speed, thanks in part to the new SIMD functionality and to several additional improvements. The core has enhancements to the K7's TLB architecture and the addition of a hardware data prefetch mechanism to better take advantage of available memory bandwidth.[15]
Changes in core layout result in Palomino being more frugal with its electrical demands, consuming approximately 20% less power than its predecessor, and thus reducing heat output comparatively as well.[16] While Athlon "Thunderbird" was near its clock ceiling at 1400 MHz, changes to Palomino's transistor layout and the reduction in power demands allowed it to continue increasing clock speed even at the same 180 nm manufacturing process node and core voltage.
The "Palomino" was actually first released as a mobile version, called the Mobile Athlon 4 (codenamed "Corvette").[15] Palomino was also available in a form that officially supports dual processing, known as Athlon MP.[17]
Specifications
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