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Playing Out of Control Gaming

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/ Adam Richardson

AMD Ships K6-2E Embedded Processor With 3DNow!

AMD is shipping the K6-2E, the first dedicated embedded processor with 3DNow! and superscalar MMX, built on Socket 7 and Super7 infrastructure.

AMD has started shipping the AMD-K6-2E, which it bills as the industry’s first dedicated embedded processor with 3DNow! technology, superscalar MMX, and 100MHz frontside bus support. The chip is the latest addition to the E86 line, AMD’s x86 family for embedded work, and because it derives from the K6 line, it drops into the existing Socket 7 and 100MHz Super7 infrastructure. Designers get to keep their current chipsets, board designs, x86 software, development tools, compilers, and debuggers instead of starting from scratch.

This one is headed for dedicated devices, not your game rig. Still, 3DNow! reaching AMD’s embedded line means the instruction set keeps spreading, and the more places it lives, the harder it gets for developers to ignore.