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Advanced Micro Devices / Cyrix / IDT Winchip

AMD and Cyrix have combined their proposed MMX extensions (AMD 3D Technology and MMXFP) to form a hybrid instruction set of 24 instructions that is designed to accelerate 3D geometry and lighting. Set to debut in the first quarter of 1998 with AMD's K6 3D processor, this instruction set adds on to the current 57 MMX instructions and will fill the gap between the existing MMX and the Intel's upcoming MMX2. Although AMD is rumored to be working on a new instruction set to compete with MMX2 in 1999, it is likely that this instruction set will compete head to head with MMX2 for a period of time. IDT has also indicated that they will adopt the specifcation for their Winchip series of processors.

Intel MMX2 (Katmai instructions)

This specification refers to a set of 70 instructions that will be added to the existing 57 instructions found in the current MMX specification which was first introduced in the Intel Pentium MMX processor. MMX2 will debut together with the Intel Katmai processor in early 1999. The MMX2 specification is expected to greatly boost the performance of visual and 3D applications by increasing the throughput for floating point operations. The first few applications likely to benifit from MMX are 3D games, but Intel is also targetting business applications such as object-oriented databases. Apart from the addition of 70 new instructions, MMX2 will also have a lower latency period when switching from FPU to MMX and vice versa. Intel is expected to help fund the development of a wide range of MMX2 optimized software before it is released. This will give MMX2 a much needed edge over the current MMX instruction set which did not have sufficient software support during the first few months of its release.

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Last modified on February 2, 1998