AMD 3DNow! Technology: Architecture and Implementations

AMD 3DNow! technology is a significant innovation to the x86 architecture that drives today's personal computers. 3DNow! technology is a set of 21 new instructions that opens the traditional processing bottlenecks for floating-point-intensive and multimedia applications. Using these instructions, applications can implement more powerful solutions to create a more entertaining and productive PC platform. Examples of the type of improvements that 3DNow! technology enables are faster frame rates on high-resolution scenes, much better physical modeling of real- world environments, sharper and more detailed 3D imaging, smoother video playback, and near theater-quality audio. The AMD-K6-2 microprocessor is the first implementation of 3DNow! technology. Future AMD microprocessors, such as the AMD-K7 processor, will provide even higher performance implementations of 3DNow! technology.