Thoroughbred (T-Bred)

The fourth-generation Athlon, the Thoroughbred, was released 10 June 2002 at 1.8 GHz, or 2200+ on the PR rating system. The "Thoroughbred" core marked AMD's first production 130 nm silicon, resulting in a significant reduction in die size compared to its 180 nm predecessor.

There are two versions of this core, commonly called A and B. The A version was introduced at 1800 MHz, and had some heat and design issues that held its clock scalability back. In fact, AMD wasn't able to increase its clock above Palomino's top grades. Because of this, it was only sold in versions from 1333 to 1800 MHz, replacing the larger Palomino core. The B version of Thoroughbred has an additional metal layer to improve its ability to reach higher clock speeds. It launched at higher clock speeds.

Other than the new manufacturing process, the Thoroughbred design was largely the same as the "Palomino". The Thoroughbred line received an increased front side bus clock during its lifetime, up to 333 MT/s from 266 MT/s. This improved the processor's memory and I/O access efficiency, and improved per-clock performance as a result. AMD shifted their PR rating scheme accordingly, making lower clock speeds equate to higher PR ratings.

Specifications

• L1-Cache: 64 + 64 KiB (Data + Instructions)
• L2-Cache: 256 KiB, fullspeed
• MMX, 3DNow!, SSE
• Socket A (EV6)
• Front side bus: 133/166 MHz (266/333 MT/s)
• VCore: 1.5 V - 1.65 V
• First release: June 10, 2002 (A), August 21, 2002 (B)
• Clockrate:
  • T-Bred "A": 1400-1800 MHz (1600+ to 2200+)
  • T-Bred "B": 1400-2250 MHz (1600+ to 2800+)
  • 133 MHz FSB: 1400-2133 MHz (1600+ to 2600+)
  • 166 MHz FSB: 2083-2250 MHz (2600+ to 2800+)