John G. Spooner, of ZDNet News, reports on AMD's release to developers of a first peek at the design of its forthcoming next-generation 64-bit processor technology, code-named SledgeHammer. Spooner writes . . .

“The company made available to software developers design guidelines for SledgeHammer software. The SledgeHammer chip will make its debut next year, first as a chip for servers and high-end applications, but AMD will also offer it for desktop PCs.”

“. . . AMD's approach [called 'X86-64'] differs markedly from competitor Intel. Intel chose to develop an entirely new processor architecture, which required application and operating system vendors to rewrite their wares.”

“. . . Put simply, the result will allow the chip to switch between a 64-bit mode and a 32-bit mode, depending on the software it is running. Instructions that are 64-bit will be tagged with a prefix, similar to today's prefix for 16-bit or 32-bit instructions, that shows them as being 64-bit.”

“. . . AMD also says its approach [X86-64] makes sense for software developers because it provides a much easier transition.”

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