AMD is intel's competitor and makes x86
cpu's.
Their K7 cpu's (
athlon, (pentium 3 killer), duron (celeron killer), athlon XP (p4 killer, 'cept for the 3200+), and athlon MP (xeon killer)) and their new chips, the
K8 cpu's (the superfast AMD
Athlon FX (P4 HT emergency edition killer), athlon64 (was more lethal to the p4 than the athlon XP), and opteron (itanium killer))
the reason that these chips can smoke equivalently-clocked
p4's is becuase of
the chip's very efficient architecture. the athlonxp uses a pipeline only about half as deep as the p4, making it more efficient because instructions do not take as long to be processed. K8 chips have a slightly deeper pipeline than the
K7's.
"i got an
amd chip 'cause i didnt want to go hungry for a year 'cause
p4's are so
friggin expensive"
"p4's are overpriced... imma grab an athlonxp... same performance if not better for half the price"