Ask a computer enthusiast or industry follower to name an AMD product and chances are you?ll hear about the Athlon 64 or AthlonXP.  Those who?ve followed Sunnyvale for an extended period of time may rattle off the K6, K6-2, or even the K5 as examples of earlier products, but one microprocessor line you aren?t likely to hear much about is Geode.  The AMD Geode is Sunnyvale?s own embedded processor line, and its targeted at a variety of application scenarios, from internet appliances to embedded thin client applications. 

The embedded market has expanded steadily over the past few years, and AMD is clearly attempting to position itself advantageously; the company?s Personal Internet Communicator is powered by a Geode GX processor and will be marketed in India, Mexico, Brazil, Russia, and China.  While we don?t have an actual PIC on hand, we?ve secured a Geode development board based on the same CPU design. We?ll be comparing its performance to VIA?s Nehemiah core?does the Geode GX stack up?

Geode:  A Cyrix By Any Other Name?

 
The original MediaGX architecture as developed and implemented by Cyrix.

 
AMD’s own published diagram of the Geode GX architecture.  Save for a few minor updates and stylistic differences regarding data presentation, the two are functionally identical--which means the vast majority of Geode’s technology dates back to 1996, plus a few updates done by National Semiconductor while they owned the design. 

AMD has two Geode product lines?the Geode NX and the Geode GX.  The Geode NX appears to be an AthlonXP Thoroughbred running on a 266 MHz FSB, and is explicitly listed as compatible with the Mobile AthlonXP architecture.  Clockspeeds range from 667 MHz to 1.4 GHz (model ratings are from NX 1250 to NX1750).  The NX1750 rating at 1.4 GHz actually is quite close to the original AthlonXP model rating of 1700+ at 1.46 GHz?obviously there?s been a small amount of tweaking there, but the shift is minimal.

Don?t let the name similarity fool you, however:  The Geode GX we?re focusing on today isn?t even peripherally related to the AthlonXP-derived Geode NX.  AMD bought the Geode GX design from National Semiconductor, who kept it after they sold the Cyrix product division to VIA.  Geode, however, was merely NS?s re-branding of a Cyrix product called MediaGX, which first debuted in February of 1997.

As its name implies, MediaGX was designed as a System-on-a-Chip (SoC) that could single-handedly replace the need for separate video and sound solutions on a motherboard with a single, integrated package.  In theory, OEMs and system builders would turn to Cyrix?s integrated SoC as a way to drive system prices lower, thus carving out a profitable niche market for Cyrix at price points Intel and AMD systems couldn?t reach. 

In reality, however, the MediaGX suffered from  poor performance and limited availability.  The integrated video component lacked all but the most basic 3D capabilities and the CPU?s performance lagged compared to other available solutions.  MediaGX was deployed in limited numbers and in a few OEM systems, but the SoC design was never widely adopted. 

next >

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• Comparing the VIA C5P (Nehemiah) and the Geode GX: (1 of 11)
• Redefining ?Bad Science?: AMD?s Synchromesh Whitepaper. (2 of 11)
• Where Things Really Get Ugly: System Configurations (3 of 11)
• Lying is Bad, Lying Badly is Worse (4 of 11)
• Beyond Synchromesh: Building a Suite of Benchmarks (5 of 11)
• System Configuration and Notes: (6 of 11)
• Sandra & ScienceMark. (7 of 11)
• WinRAR, Super Pi, Cinebench. (8 of 11)
• MP3 Encoding, Business Winstone 2001, Winbench 99 (9 of 11)
• What the Numbers Tell Us (10 of 11)
• Conclusion: AMD Geode Ratings Unjustified, Based on Fundamentally Flawed Study. (11 of 11)