AMDs K7: Better Than Intels Best?
You’ve probably never bought a PC with an AMD CPU. You may not be considering one now. All the same, you owe AMD your thanks. If you’ve bought a PC in the last two or three years, the number two chipmaker has saved you a lot of money. Not that AMD is trying to play the generous uncle. It’s struggling to make a profit. And what a struggle it has been. AMD’s K5, touted as a challenger to the Pentium, stumbled in the starting gate. AMD’s K6 took a momentary lead over Intel’s Pentium MMX. More recently, the K6-III-450 nosed in front of the Pentium III-450 and (on some benchmarks) the Pentium III-500, only to be quickly eclipsed by the Pentium III-550. Always the off-brand and usually the performance laggard, AMD has had to settle for a big chunk of the low end of the market. No doubt about it: Keeping up with a competitor is tough when you have to stay compatible as well. Nevertheless, AMD’s limited success against Intel shows what a little competition can do. The chip giant has been force
