Gene Trinks
will present
AMD Hardware

Tuesday, March 31 at O'Leary Auditorium
University of Dayton Campus, Dayton, Ohio

No charge.    Please bring a friend.    Guests welcome.

Please join us Tuesday night, March 31, 1998, at the University of Dayton. Go to O'Leary Auditorium in Miriam Hall. We'll begin at 7:30 pm. Bring a friend.


If you have not already experienced the performance and value that AMD-K6® processors bring to personal computers, now is your chance. Gene Trinks, from AMD, will be presenting at the March 31st meeting. Come hear all about AMD's award winning technology, the AMD-K6® processor. It is a 6th generation Windows-compatible solution that delivers state-of-the-art performance competitive with the Pentium II.

Bill Howard, in PC Magazine, June 1997, said:
"The K6 incorporates the MMX instructions, so it's most like the Pentium II in performance and possibly a bit faster on some operations...  K6 could be your best bet for the highest performance at a reasonable price."

The Rapid March to Tomorrow

Producing an integrated circuit is a complex task. A state-of-the-art microchip today - our presenter's AMD-K5(tm) microprocessor, for example -- has approximately 4.3 million transistors on a die smaller than a thumbnail.

Building such chips requires highly advanced process technology. Over the past five years, Mr. Trinks tells me, AMD has invested nearly $1.4 billion -- more than 15 percent of sales -- in research and development. A substantial portion of this expenditure has been directed at developing industry-leading process technology.

AMD's investment has delivered extraordinary returns. The economics of semiconductor manufacturing are compelling. Simply put, those who can build the smallest, fastest, most highly integrated chips can offer sizable advantages to their customers.

The Power of Process

Advances in process technology -- especially in photolithography - have brought AMD from their original Am386(r) microprocessor, a 200,000-transistor device introduced in 1991. It was produced on third-generation 0.8-micron technology -- that is, its smallest features are approximately eight-tenths of a micron in width.

Their second chip was AMD's initial Am486(r) microprocessor, introduced in 1993. This chip was manufactured on fourth-generation, 0.7-micron technology with three layers of metal. This device contains approximately 1 million transistors -- five times as many as the Am386 chip -- hence, the large die size even with a more advanced process technology.

Their third chip was the Am486 microprocessor on fifth-generation, 0.5-micron, triple-layer metal technology. The die is only slightly larger than the original Am386. The final chip is an Am486 microprocessor manufactured on sixth-generation, 0.35-micron technology, yielding a dramatically smaller chip than the original Am386 microprocessor.

AMD announced on January 6, 1998 that it commenced initial shipments of AMD-K6 processors based on 0.25-micron process technology during the recently completed quarter (Q4, 1997). The initial shipments, which were fabricated in the company's Submicron Development Center, included both 266- and 233-megahertz versions of the product.

AMD's first desktop processor based on 0.25-micron process technology is a 266-megahertz AMD-K6 device, which is being used to power IBM Corp.'s new Aptiva model E46 consumer personal computer, introduced today by IBM.

Our speaker March 31, Gene Trinks, says "AMD's growth through the rest of the century will likely be fueled by the exploding demand for mobile computing and telecommunications devices, two markets for which AMD has spent years developing products. Key to the company's success will be building close relationships with its customers, and continuing to develop the manufacturing and process technologies necessary to produce future-generation submicron devices.

"One thing is for certain, AMD's future will be shaped by the same principles that are woven into its past: a competitive drive, a focus on customers, innovative new products, and the ability to learn and adapt to change. Most of all, the company's future will be shaped by AMDers, the people whose efforts created a successful, and now legendary, company.

"As a smart PC buyer you want the right system to explore the Internet, communicate by e-mail, use your productivity software, give your kids an educational edge, and play the latest computer games.

"For the same price as a Pentium II equipped system, a PC powered by the AMD-K6 can include more memory, a larger hard drive, a faster modem, better graphics acceleration, and other performance-enhancing features. No matter how much or how little you want to spend on your PC, you can get richer, more powerful configurations from AMD-K6 processor-based systems. "

Bob Esch, Editor
The DataBus
eschb@dma.org

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