User's Manual

6 AMD Athlon™ Processor Microarchitecture Summary
AMD Athlon™ Processor x86 Code Optimization
22007E/0—November 1999
The coding techniques for achieving peak performance on the
AMD Athlon processor include, but are not limited to, those for
the AMD-K6, AMD-K6-2, Pentium
®
, Pentium Pro, and Pentium
II processors. However, many of these optimizations are not
necessary for the AMD Athlon processor to achieve maximum
performance. Due to the more flexible pipeline control and
aggressive out-of-order execution, the AMD Athlon processor is
not as sensitive to instruction selection and code scheduling.
This flexibility is one of the distinct advantages of the
AMD Athlon processor.
The AMD Athlon processor uses the latest in processor
microarchitecture design techniques to provide the highest x86
performance for today’s PC. In short, the AMD Athlon
processor offers true next-generation performance with x86
binary software compatibility.