subsequently, Intel developed the 88 processor and 885 processor, together with the MC68 microprocessor of Motorola and the Z8 microprocessor of Zilog, which formed the family of eight-bit microprocessors.
the typical product of sixteen-bit microprocessor is Intel's 886 microprocessor, and the mathematical coprocessor produced at the same time, that is, 887. These two chips use compatible instruction sets, but some instructions specially used for mathematical calculations such as logarithm, exponent and trigonometric functions are added to the 887 instruction set. Because these instructions are applied to 886 and 887, they are collectively called X86 instruction sets. Since then, a new generation of CPU products introduced by Intel are all compatible with the original X86 instructions.
in p>1979, Intel introduced the 888 chip, which is still a 16-bit microprocessor with 29, transistors, the clock frequency is 4.77MHz, the address bus is 2 bits, and it can use 1MB of memory. The internal data bus of 888 is 16 bits and the external data bus is 8 bits. In 1981, the 888 chip was first used in IBM PC. If the 88 processor is not well known, then 888 can be said to be a household name, and the first generation CPU of personal computer-PC started from it. Although the 8286 chip in 1982 was a 16-bit chip, it already contained 134, transistors and its clock frequency reached an unprecedented 2MHz. Its internal and external data buses are all 16 bits, and its address bus is 24 bits. It can use 16MB of memory, and the available working modes include real mode and protected mode.
the representative product of 32-bit microprocessor is 8386 introduced by Intel in 1985, which is a full 32-bit microprocessor chip and the first 32-bit chip in X86 family. It contains 275, transistors, and its clock frequency is 12.5MHz, and then it is gradually increased to 33MHz. The internal and external data buses of 8386 are 32 bits, and the address bus is also 32 bits, which can address 4GB of memory. In addition to real mode and protection mode, it also adds a virtual 86 working mode, which can provide multi-task capability by simulating multiple 886 processors at the same time. In 1989, Intel introduced the quasi-32-bit processor chip 8386SX. Its internal data bus is 32 bits, the same as 8386, and its external data bus is 16 bits. That is to say, the internal processing speed of 8386SX is close to that of 8386, and it also supports real multi-task operation, and it can accept the development of input/output interface chips for 8286. The performance of 8386SX is better than that of 8286, and the price is only one third of that of 8386. 386 processor has no built-in coprocessor, so it can't execute floating-point operation instructions. If you need to perform floating-point operation, you must purchase an expensive 8387 coprocessor chip.
in the late 198s and early 199s, the 8486 processor came into the market, which integrated 1.2 million transistors, and the clock frequency gradually increased from 25MHz to 5MHz. 8486 integrates 8386, math coprocessor 8387 and an 8KB cache in one chip, and RISC (Reduced Instruction Set) technology is used for the first time in X86 series, which can execute an instruction in one clock cycle. It also adopts burst bus mode, which greatly improves the data exchange speed with memory. Due to these improvements, the performance of 8486 is four times higher than that of 8386 with 8387 coprocessor. The early 486 is divided into two types: 486DX with coprocessor and 486SX without coprocessor, and their prices are also quite different. With the continuous development of chip technology, the frequency of CPU is getting faster and faster, and the external devices of PC are limited by technology, which hinders the further improvement of the main frequency of CPU. In this case, CPU frequency doubling technology appears, which makes the internal working frequency of CPU 2-3 times that of the external frequency of processor, hence the names 486DX2 and 486DX4.
in the mid-199s, a new generation of 586 processors came out, which completely surpassed 486. In order to get rid of the confusion of processor names in the 486 era, Intel Corporation, the largest CPU manufacturer, named its new generation products Pentium to distinguish AMD from Cyrix. AMD and Cyrix also introduced K5 and 6x86 processors to deal with Intel, but Intel gradually occupied most of the market because of the best performance of Pentium processor.
I don't need to tell you that everyone knows about the development of CPU since then. Pentium MMX went on the market in early 1997, Pentium II and AMD K6 went on the market in the middle of the year, and Cyrix6x8MX went on the market at the end of the year. In 1998, it was even more "three-legged", with PII, Celeron, K6-2 and MII killing each other. Since the introduction of Pentium II, Intel has abandoned the aging Socket 7 market and pushed the advanced Slot 1 architecture. But this time, Intel made a mistake. With the growth of global demand for low-cost PCs below $1,, AMD's K6-2 processor has filled the gap in this low-end field. AGP bus technology, 1MHz external frequency, These technologies, which were originally realized only on Slot 1, were also realized in the Super 7 era first advocated by AMD. Although the performance of K6-2 and Super 7 is still far behind that of PII with the same frequency, the low price still allows AMD to grab nearly 3% of the CPU retail market share. AMD has won the favor of many consumers with a gesture of not being afraid of the strong.
unfortunately, in 1999, faced with Intel's fierce counterattack, AMD began to decline, and its market sales were very bad. Cyrix was defeated in this processor war. It wanted to rely on NS (National Semiconductor Company) to make a comeback, but it was too late, and it was finally acquired by chipset manufacturer VIA in June.
IDT and Rise, two new companies that entered the processor market, have their own unique features in technological innovation and market positioning. Winchip C6 and Winchip C6-2 of IDT are mainly aimed at the low-end home market, while Rise's processors mainly enter the field of mobile computers. Unfortunately, under the pressure of Intel products, their life is also firm. In mid-1999, just one month after Cyrix was acquired, VIA acquired IDT company, and at the same time, Rise was also acquired by another chipset manufacturer SIS (Silicon System Technology). Then it was reported that Rise had withdrawn from the PC processor market and focused on the home appliance processing chip market. In this way, after readjustment, the PC processor market showed a new tripartite confrontation. AMD made a beautiful turnaround with the Athlon-K7 released in August, and K7 became the fastest processor with overall performance surpassing similar Intel products for the first time in history, and its market share has a trend of further expansion. After acquiring Cyrix and IDT, VIA integrates the latest technologies of the two companies, and plans to launch Joshua-Joshua processor compatible with Socket37 in early 2, focusing on the low-end market. In short, with the fierce competition, companies are making every effort to develop the latest, fastest and best processor products for consumers.
The glory at the end of the century-Pentium III:
At the beginning of 1999, Intel released the third generation Pentium III processor, and the first batch of Pentium III processors adopted the Katmai core, with two main frequencies of 45 and 5Mhz. The biggest feature of this kernel is to update the multimedia instruction set named SSE, which adds 7 new instructions on the basis of MMX to enhance 3D and floating-point applications, and is compatible with all previous MMX programs.
however, in all fairness, apart from the SSE instruction set mentioned above, the Pentium III of Katmai kernel has few attractions. It still basically retains the architecture of Pentium II, with .25 micron technology, 1Mhz external frequency, Slot1 architecture and 512KB secondary cache (running at half the speed of CPU), so the performance improvement is not great. However, when Pentium III just went on the market, there was a great upsurge. Someone once bought the first batch of Pentium III at a high price of more than 1, yuan.
the first generation Pentium III processor (Katmai)
can be greatly improved, from 5Mhz to 1.13Ghz, and the overclocking performance can be greatly improved, and the range can reach more than 5%. In addition, its secondary cache is also synchronized with the main frequency of CPU, but the capacity is reduced to 256KB.
The second generation Pentium III processor (Coppermine)
In addition to the improvement brought by the manufacturing process, some Coppermine Pentium III also have a bus frequency of 133Mhz and a socket of 37. In order to distinguish them, Intel added a "b" after the Pentium III model with a 133Mhz bus. An "e" is added after the Socket37. For example, the Socket37 Pentium III with a frequency of 55Mhz and an external frequency of 133Mhz is called 55EB.
Seeing the popularity of Pentium III with Coppermine core, Intel began to switch Celeron processors to this core. In mid-2, Celeron processors with Coppermine128 core, commonly known as Celeron2, were introduced. As a result of switching to .18 technology, the overclocking performance of Celeron has made another leap, and the overclocking range can reach 1%.
the second generation Celeron(Coppermine128 core) processor
AMD's Jedi counterattack-Athlon
At the beginning, in order to fight against Pentium III, AMD introduced the K6-3 processor. K6-3 processor is a TriLevel structure design, with a 64K first-level cache (Level 1) and a 256K second-level cache (Level 2) built in, and a third-level cache (Level 3) on the motherboard. The K6-3 processor also supports enhanced 3D Now! Instruction set Due to the problems of cost and yield, K6-3 processor was not very successful in the desktop market, so it gradually disappeared from the desktop market and entered the notebook market.
what really makes AMD proud is the Athlon processor originally code-named K7. Athlon has a superscalar Risc core with superscalar, superpipeline and multi-pipeline. It adopts .25 micron technology and integrates 22 million transistors. Athlon includes three decoders, three integer execution units (IEU), three address generation units (AGU) and three multimedia units (floating-point arithmetic units). Athlon can execute three transistors at the same clock cycle. K7 includes three decoders, which send the decoded macroOPS instructions (K7 decodes X86 instructions into macroOPS instructions and converts X86 instructions with different lengths into macroOPS instructions with the same length, which can give full play to the power of RISC core) to the instruction control unit, which can control (save) 72 instructions at the same time. Then send the instruction to integer unit or multimedia unit. Integer units can schedule 18 instructions at the same time. Each integer unit is an independent pipeline, and the scheduling unit can predict the branches of instructions and execute them out of order. K7' s multimedia unit (also called floating-point unit) has a stack register that can be renamed. The floating-point scheduling unit can schedule 36 instructions at the same time, and the floating-point register can store 88 instructions. Among the three floating-point units, there is an adder and a multiplier, and these two units can execute MMX instruction and 3DNow instruction. There is also a floating-point unit responsible for loading and saving data. Because of K7' s powerful floating-point unit, AMD processor surpassed Intel's processor at that time for the first time.
Athlon has a built-in full-speed cache (L1 Cache) of 128KB, and a secondary cache (L2 Cache) with a capacity of 512KB and a frequency of 1/2 hours outside the chip, which can support up to 8MB L2 Cache at most. A large cache can further improve the huge data throughput required by the server system.
Athlon's package and appearance are similar to Pentium II, but Athlon adopts Slot A interface specification. Slot A interface originated from Alpha EV6 bus, the clock frequency is as high as 2MHz, which makes the peak bandwidth reach 1.6GB/S, and it is still compatible with the traditional 1MHz bus on the memory bus, thus protecting the investment of users and reducing the cost. Later, DDR SDRAM with higher performance was adopted, which is similar to the data throughput of 8MHz RAMBUS pushed by Intel. EV6 bus can support up to 4MHz, which can perfectly support multiple processors. Therefore, it has a natural advantage, knowing that Slot1 only supports dual processors and SlotA can support 4 processors. SlotA looks very similar to the traditional Slot1, just like the Slot1 is inverted 18 degrees, but the two are completely incompatible in electrical specifications and bus protocols. The CPU of Slot 1／Socket37 cannot be installed on Athlon motherboard of Slot A slot, and vice versa.
Third, CPU entering the new century
Since the new century, CPU has entered an era of higher-speed development, and the previously unattainable 1Ghz mark has been easily broken.