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sse5

AMD's SSE5 ends the old RISC vs. CISC debate

Remember how I said that Moore's Law is "the full-employment act for computer pundits"?

In the smaller niche of microprocessor journalism, there used to be another topic that was always good for a column: RISC vs. CISC.

In the early days of computing, a CPU (central processing unit) was a series of refrigerator-size cabinets in the computer room. Memory capacity was very limited. Computer scientists would analyze how programs executed on these machines and look for ways to shorten and speed up their programs by defining… Read more

AMD proposes SSE5 for faster games, media apps

AMD is asking software developers to consider its new x86 instructions when developing games and media applications in upcoming years.

Intel and AMD keep adding to the venerable x86 instruction set with new instructions that anticipate the performance of future applications. Intel will release SSE4 extensions later this year with the Penryn chips, and now AMD has proposed adding SSE5 instructions to its processors around the time the Fusion chips are released.

The proposal would add almost 50 new instructions that give software developers more tools to work with in designing next-generation applications. More details can be found on AMD's developer Web site, … Read more