Microsoft brings the first mouse in the company’s history, AMD the Athlon 64 with San Diego core and Nvidia the last infusion of the legendary G80 chip – that happened on May 2nd. Every day, PC Games Hardware takes a look back at the young but eventful history of the computer.
… 1983: Software is still mostly controlled by keyboard these days – issuing commands with a mouse is completely new to most people; this operating concept only became popular a year later with Apple’s Macintosh. Nevertheless, Microsoft is recognizing the signs of the times and is introducing the first Microsoft mouse on May 2nd. The inconspicuous device with two green buttons and a serial interface is intended to help the word processor “Word” for MS-DOS that will follow later; First of all, a program is included that is intended to teach the user how to use this type of device in a playful way. However, the device is not a success – that only applies to the successor version, which appears a year later and, above all, works much more quietly. Nevertheless: Microsoft’s entry into the market for input devices has been made.
… 2005: The Athlon 64 is already in the fast lane and today AMD is drilling the core again. After Clawhammer, Newcastle, Winchester and Venice, it should be San Diego for Socket 939, which AMD still produces in the 90 nm SOI process itself. While the other parameters match those of the other A64 processors, the cache and thus the number of transistors are larger. With 1,024 kiB Level 2 cache, the 114 million transistors are housed on 115 mm² and sold as Athlon 64 3500+ to 4000+ with clock speeds of 2.2 to 2.4 GHz.
… 2007: Last November, Nvidia released the first DirectX 10 GPUs based on the G80 and quickly regained the performance crown. AMD took its time with the presentation of the HD 2900 XT and so the status quo will exist until May 2nd, when Nvidia will do it again and launch the Geforce 8800 Ultra for 699 euros. Compared to the 8800 GTX, the Clock rates increased from 575e/1350s/900m Megahertz to 612/1,512/1,080 MHz and the cooler was slightly revised. In order to be able to reach the clocks, Nvidia relies on the new A3 revision of the otherwise unchanged G80 GPU, which also drives the Geforce 8800 GTX, GTS/640 and GTS/320. AMD is now faced with the problem of having to face an even faster portfolio – and later decides on a thoroughly creative solution.
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