18. But AMD’s biggest breakthrough came four years later when it introduced an
extension of x86 architecture that took Windows processors into the realm of 64-bit computing.
Unlike Intel, which invested billions in its Itanium microprocessor and a new, uniquely 64-bit
proprietary instruction set (which, because it was proprietary, would have been a game-ending
development for AMD had it become the industry standard), AMD undertook to supplement
the x86 instructions to accommodate 64-bit processing while allowing 32-bit software to be run
as well. AMD’s efforts culminated when, in April 2003, it brought to market its Opteron
microprocessor for servers (the workhorse computers used by businesses to run corporate
networks, e-commerce websites and other high-end, computationally-intense applications).
Opteron was the industry’s first x86 backward compatible 64-bit chip. Six months later, AMD
launched the Athlon64, a backward compatible 64-bit microprocessor for desktops and mobile
computers.
19. The computing industry hailed AMD’s introduction of 64-bit computing as an
engineering triumph. Said Infoworld in its August 27, 2004, issue,
You just gotta love a Cinderella story. . . . AMD’s rapid rise
from startup to $5 billion semiconductor powerhouse is, as
Humphrey Bogart’s English teacher once said, the stuff of
which dreams are made. . . . In the process, AMD has
become known as the company that kept Intel honest, the
Linux of the semiconductor world. . . . After decades of
aping Intel architectures, the AMD64 architecture, rooted in
Opteron and Athlon 64 processors, has actually been
imitated by Intel in the form of Nocona, Intel’s 64-bit
version of Xeon. In a stunning reversal of fortune, Intel was
forced to build that chip because Opteron was invading a
server market that the Intel Itanium was supposed to
dominate.
In what represented a paradigm shift in the microprocessor world, Microsoft endorsed AMD’s
64-bit instruction set and announced that Windows would support it. As noted by Infoworld,
9
Intel then copied AMD’s technology for its own 64-bit offerings – an event that poignantly
marked AMD’s technological emergence. Intel still has yet to catch up.
