From a performance perspective, AMD was the 'April-Fool' of 1997, their K6 release on April 2nd was plagued by chip shortages and supply problems; missing both the expected shipping dates, and the "fools-day" AMD had a success on their hands but knew more was necessary to combat Intel, especially after the mammoth Pentium II processor made its debut in May of that year. 

AMD let Intel take the early glory this year, in hopes of shaking off the reputation of not being able to deliver on time.  First it was the K5 that was off shipping schedule, then the K6/233 which made its appearance in retail channels over 2 weeks after its release, followed by the 266MHz part that was too little too late.  Ecstatic over their move to the 100MHz Front Side Bus frequency, has Intel become the 'April-Fool' of 1998?  Has AMD managed to breathe life back into the dying Socket-7 market?  Is the threat of the K6-2 as great as many have anticipated it to be, or is the processor's release simply a way of stalling users from completely migrating to the Slot-1 standard?  Let's answer those questions as AnandTech takes a look at the AMD K6-2 Processor...