When Sunnyvale chose the code name “Barton” for their 512K AthlonXP processor they set their sights high.  While Thoroughbred (AMD’s .13 micron code name) implies a solid level of performance by referencing a well-bred horse, the name Barton has a more specific meaning.  The original Barton was Sir Barton, the first horse to win the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness, and the Belmont.  These three races are the crown jewels of horse racing, and are collectively referred to as the Triple Crown.  It’s rare for one horse to win all three events; Sir Barton’s 1919 Triple Crown victory was a feat that’s only been equaled 11 times in the last 83 years. 

 

 

 While he’s gone down in the history books for his speed, Sir Barton’s personality never won him any awards.  He was grouchy and ill-tempered, with a marked dislike for people as well as other horses, with a possible exception for his groom.  The son of Sir Barton’s owner may have put it best when he described the champion as “an irascible, exasperating creature." 

 While AMD isn’t generally known for grouchiness, the label of “exasperating” may be particularly apt, at least from Intel’s perspective.  The launch of the P4 was supposed to herald the rapidly-approaching end of the Athlon era.  The K7 architecture, it was believed, would be unable to keep pace with the rapid scaling of the P4 once that CPU made the transition to .13 micron.  Kept far behind by inherent core limitations, Athlon was to fade away into the budget market, while K8 entered with its superior scalability to compete against Intel’s Northwood processor.  This wasn’t seen as a problem?so long as Hammer launched on time. 

By the second quarter of 2002, however, it was becoming clear that Hammer was not going to meet its 2H02 ship date, and the P4’s newly-found headroom was leaving the Athlon behind.  Palomino was a solid core and a strong design, but it was still only a .18 micron part with a ceiling around 1.8 GHz.  While AMD might’ve been able to stretch this to the 2 GHz mark with a few rare CPU’s, it was clear that Palomino was stuck at AMD’s 2100+ rating.  This wasn’t a problem through the first quarter, but starting in Q2 Intel pounded AMD with the 2.4 GHz P4 and a jump to a 533 MHz FSB.  With the Pentium 4 now firmly in the lead, all eyes were on AMD’s Thoroughbred launch in July, counting on it to put AMD back in the race. 

 Unfortunately, the original Thoroughbred core wasn’t exactly race-winning material. T-bred ran extremely hot and the CPU was only clocked a disappointing 67 MHz above its .18 micron Palomino brethren.  Even on .13 micron, Thoroughbred didn?t look capable of keeping up with Intel’s soon-to-be-released 2.8 GHz processor, to say nothing of the 3.06 GHz and Hyper-Threading technology coming in November.

 AMD, however, had other ideas.  Six weeks after the release of the 2200+, Sunnyvale released a much-cooler 2600+ running on a tweaked .13 micron process.  Intel launched the 2.8 GHz P4 only a few days later, but AMD had regained substantial ground.  AMD followed the 2600+ with a rather dubious “limited edition” launch of the 2800+ in early October, which brings us to the present day?and the launch of Barton.  The 3000+ processor marks the first time AMD has had a performance-rated CPU competitive to Intel’s best out on the market for any length of time in almost nine months. (The AthlonXP 2600+ DID briefly stand over the 2.4 GHz P4?but only for about five days). AMD’s fought their way back to challenge Intel for the top spot?does the AthlonXP still have what it takes to challenge the P4?  We’re a long way from Willamette and 1.5 GHz?

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• The Barton Core (0 of 8)
• Test Setup (0 of 8)
• Office Performance (0 of 8)
• Multimedia Encoding (0 of 8)
• 3d Modeling, Gaming (0 of 8)
• Analysis (0 of 8)
• Overclocking (0 of 8)
• OC Analysis, Conclusion (0 of 8)