The Powernow premiere – AMD discovers power saving (PCGH-Retro, June 26)

… 2000: The average PC user is hardly interested in the power consumption of his computer at this time. However, the growing notebook market places different demands on the hardware: Due to the limited battery life of mobile computers, components that use electrical power more sparingly are required here. The mobile version of Intel’s Pentium III was the first processor to bring a saving technique: Speedstep allows you to switch between normal operation and a saving mode in which the CPU simply lowers its clock rate using a multiplier – the supply voltage remains unchanged, which is why the effect is not very large, moreover the user has to select the operating mode himself using special software. Without these weaknesses, AMD’s alternative, which was released on June 26, 2000 in two new mobile K6-2+ models, works debuted: Powernow automatically reduces the clock and voltage via the driver when the processor has little to do; Intel’s Speedstep technology only learns both in later versions. A few years later, Powernow! in a similar form in AMD’s desktop CPUs, of course: as “Cool’n’quiet”.