So when should we expect to see the new breed of processors (with an on-die cache) to emerge? Rumor has it that processors with a full speed cache and copper interconnects will start showing up roughly the same time as VIA's KX133 chipset sees the light of day. As the third quarter approaches, there is a good chance that the 1GHz mark will be broken by "air-cooled" CPUs. We're getting ahead of ourselves though so let's take a closer look at the subject at hand.
Before deciding you want to dive headfirst into purchasing the CPU with the highest frequency, it's important to consider where the system will be most heavily utilized. In order to accurately compare the perks of the Athlons and Coppermines, we have run a slew of benchmarks, showing both real world and synthetic results.
Meet the Reference System
The system we received from AMD sports a Gigabyte GA-7IX motherboard; the same motherboard favored by SYS Inc. in their SuperG 1GHz machines.
- AMD-751 Northbridge
- 200MHz host bus
- AGP 2X
- PC-100 SDRAM support
- PCI 2.2 compliant
- ECC support
- AMD-756 Southbridge
- UDMA/66 on board support
- 4-port OHCI USB
- APM 1.2 compliant
- PCI-ISA bridge
- Plug and Play support
We are eagerly awaiting VIA's KX133, but have also come to realize that for the time being, stability and reliability are as good as we'll see with AMD's original reference design.