It’s not every day that a piece of tech history comes to light, but someone has waited 25 years for their easter egg to be discovered, and that time has finally arrived. When taking a closer look at an AMD Athlon K7 Pluto CPU from 1999, someone found more than they bargained for.
AMD has long been known for producing some of the best gaming CPU options on the market, and the Athlon K7 architecture made a big splash in the late 1990s when it outperformed Intel’s Pentium III architecture, back in that strange period when CPUs came in slot format. However, this latest discovery doesn’t quite have an explanation to go alongside it yet.
FritzchensFritz made the discovery before posting photos of it over on Twitter (X), and it’s quite the sight. It’s also a miracle that no one stumbled across it sooner.
On a tangent, Fritz then goes on to theorize about the origins of the codenames for AMD K7 chips, and how they could have led to these pictures being imprinted on the chips. While we love the idea of a revolver-wielding Greek God, and somehow tying it into a championship-winning racehorse, it doesn’t quite add up.
However, an answer came from Phil Park of AMD, who confirmed the initial strategy of adopting codenames based on cars was switched to horses to avoid potential trademark disputes. That still doesn’t explain the imagery on the AMD Athlon K7, but it is most likely due to AMD having offices in Austin, Texas.
Easter eggs have long been a feature within the video game world too, with Warren Robinette’s Adventure, released in 1980 on the Atari 2600, often incorrectly cited as the first example, being brought about because Atari didn’t credit developers for their work at the time.
However, an earlier example of an easter egg was discovered in Moonlander, released in 1973, where if you fly a spacecraft through multiple screens, you will eventually encounter a McDonald’s restaurant that you can then choose to visit.
This gets us thinking, though. How many other hidden easter eggs are still yet to be found? So often a creator comes forward to let everyone know what they’ve done, but surely there are still mysteries waiting to be discovered, although we don’t advise tearing apart ancient components to find any goodies unless you know what you’re doing.
The tech inside PCs has changed a lot since 1999, so if you want to know how to build a gaming PC in 2024, we’ve got you covered with an incredibly detailed guide.