AMD to Unveil Speedy New Athlon Chips on Tuesday
Posted by vincent on 09 October 2001 - 11:16 · no comments & 578 views
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The long-expected announcement will be twinned with an appearance by AMD's founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Jerry Sanders at the Fairmont Hotel here on Tuesday morning. AMD issued a short notice that Sanders would be on hand to announce a new strategic initiative and "formally launch a new AMD product."
Until just a few months ago, Intel INTC.O and AMD routinely swapped the title of selling the fastest microprocessor, which has been the most widely used gauge of a chip's performance.
Now, however, Intel has a Pentium 4 chip running at 2 gigahertz available, while AMD has yet to reach the 2 gigahertz threshold.
"The problem right now is Intel is getting some momentum back with their 2 gigahertz Pentium 4 chip," said Needham & Co. analyst Dan Scovel. "They stole the crown back after a six-month hiatus."
AMD has been, for several months now, stressing to reporters and analysts that the clock speed of a microprocessor, the brains of PC, is not the last word on overall performance. There are benchmark tests that have been done showing AMD's Athlon -- running at a slower clock speed -- outperforms Intel's Pentium 4 chip on certain tasks.
Some wonder, though, whether it's too little too late.
"If you're going to get serious about weighing price performance, I think it's a valid point that AMD is making," Scovel said. "But beating the drum at this point is kind of like closing the door after the horse has left the barn."