AMD To Use Virtutech To Simulate Hammer Chip

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January 16, 2001 (3:17 PM EST)

AMD To Use Virtutech To Simulate Hammer Chip

By Mark Hachman,

Advanced Micro Devices has apparently adjusted its relationship with Transmeta Corp. with regard to prototyping the upcoming Hammer microprocessor.

AMD announced Tuesday an agreement with Virtutech, a Swedish developer of simulation systems to collaborate on a "VirtuHammer" prototype tool to write and test software for the X86-64 instruction set used by Hammer systems.

The agreement calls for the software to run on any computer, instead of exclusively on the Transmeta Crusoe architecture. Originally, sources said the Crusoe was to be used as an exclusive prototyping tool for the Hammer, in the manner of a programmable logic device.

According to a spokesman for AMD (stock: AMD), the VirtuHammer software can run on any x86 microprocessor, including the Crusoe, AMD Athlon, or even the Intel Pentium III. The AMD spokesman declined to comment on rumors that the company had an exclusive relationship with Transmeta (stock: TMTA).

A spokesman for Transmeta, Santa Clara, Calif., was unavailable for comment.

In addition, AMD, Sunnyvale, Calif., apparently has also altered its plans for the simulation software. Internally, AMD had developed a SimNow! Package for simulating the X86-64 instruction set, the company said.

The Virtutech software, part of its Simics package, can simulate entire computers at up to 100 times faster than the SimNow! software, using operating systems including Microsoft's Windows 2000 and a "few different distributions" of Linux, the spokesman said.

The agreement was formed, sources said, because the earlier software compiled extremely slowly on conventional X86 chips.