Since their launch in late 2003, AMD's 64-bit x86 CPUs have proven to be very popular. The Opteron single-handedly created a "budget" 64-bit server market, while the Athlon 64's performance demonstrated once and for all that despite the marketing hype, clock speed was not the be all and end all of performance.
In my architectural history of the Pentium line, I characterized the P6 architecture as crown jewel of Intel's x86 processor line. AMD owes a similar debt to the K7 core, the main architecture on which the company has staked its processor business since the launch of the Athlon line in 1999.
Join Hannibal as he takes a look at the architecture of the 64-bit crown jewels of AMD, the Opteron and Athlon 64.

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