What is unique about the AMD Thunderbird?

[JBOswald]

I see many references to the AMD Thunderbird processor. What is the difference between the Thunderbird and the regular K7 Athlon processor?

 

[Davegod75]

the move the cache on die. This speeds up the processor.

 

[cnhoff]

The Tbird has 256KB L2 cache on-die which is clocked with the core frequency. The original Athlon has I think 512KB (or 256KB)on the Slot A board, which is only clocked with 1/2, 1/3, 1/4 etc. of the core frequency depending on the cpu speed.