AMD plans K6 MMX massacre

If you're planning to go to CeBit in Hannover this March, be careful which aisles you walk down. AMD and Cyrix will be sited directly across the aisle from Intel's mammoth stand, and both companies will be showing off their Intel-killers.

Although the German exhibition will host the first public showing of AMD's K6 processor, the company is stopping short of calling it a launch. AMD will, however, be making a "big splash" according to regional marketing manager for the PC products Richard Baker. A number of manufacturers will be demonstrating PCs based on the chip, and volume shipments are expected to start at about the same time.

Like Cyrix, AMD is keeping tight-lipped about pricing and performance - part of the reason that the company is avoiding the use of the word 'launch' is that this may not be set until after CeBit. However, with a 64Kb cache - twice that of the Intel Pentium with MMX - the K6 is expected to produce better performance figures, particularly with non-MMX enabled applications. It will be positioned against Intel's Klamath-codenamed Pentium Pro with MMX.