Analysis and Comparison of Athlon XP v Pentium 4 essays

Analysis and Comparison of Athlon XP v Pentium 4 essays Introduction Choosing an architecture for computers is not a glamorous decision, but the choice can have long-term and significant ramifications for decision makers. For many, the choice is little more than Apple v. PC, although the issue of Linux v. Windows is gaining increased visibility. However, once the choice has been made to use a PC rather than an Apple, there are still several architecture choices that must be made. AMD and Intel are the two giants in this industry, offering the flagship Athlon and Pentium processors. Both companies also manufacture other processors, but these are the two powerhouse brands associated with each company. This research considers the Athlon XP and Pentium 4 processors and which processor is appropriate for today's business environment. Athlon XP Analysis The Athlon XP has slower clock speed than the Pentium 4, but because of its unique architecture, including DDR memory, the performance is not noticeably slower than the Pentium 4. For example, although AMD marketed a 1.6GHz Athlon XP, its performance rivaled that of the 2.2GHz Pentium 4 in many benchmark tests. Lower clock speed does not always translate into slower performance in the AMD environment (Metz 108). Despite this, AMD put fewer innovations into the Athlon XP and more into other Athlon product lines with the result that it focused nearly exclusively on clock speed for The Athlon XP is used in both traditional desktops as well as in laptop machines using the Athlon XP-M. Traditionally, the Athlon XP has been considered competition to the Intel Celeron and low-end Pentium 4 machines, but not as powerful as the Intel Pentium 4 when the latter is run in more powerful environments. At this point, the Athlon XP is being relegated to the low-end of AMD's processor offerings with the company focusing majo...