What is a AMD K7, K8 Processor?

[dtp4life]

I was wondering what some technical sites mean when they say "this is compatabile with the K7 and K8 AMD processors".

What do they mean ? What processors?

 

[shortylickens]

Originally the AMD processors were called K1 through K6. Like the K6-III.
This was a reference to the x86 names of intel chips.
Just like when intel started to call their 586 a 'pentium', AMD called their K7 an 'Athlon'
I believe K8 refers to the A64 chips. But I could be smoking some bad weed too.

 

[Megatomic]

K7 is the Athlon and Duron.

K8 is Athlon64 and Opteron.

 

[dtp4life]

I have the AMD 64 FX 55, I want to get a CPU cooling system, and it says that it is compatible with K8 AMD processors.

Will this product work on my machine then?

 

[leedog2007]

Yes because all of the Athlon 64/fx cores are K8 cores.

 

[Megatomic]

Originally posted by: dtp4life
I have the AMD 64 FX 55, I want to get a CPU cooling system, and it says that it is compatible with K8 AMD processors.

Will this product work on my machine then?

The stock hsf retention device is the same for all K8 chips (as designed by AMD) and usually comes with the motherboard. If a certain cooler uses a different method of mounting it will probably come with it's own in the kit.