Advanced Micro Devices is rolling out two additional dual-core processors as part of its Athlon 64 X2 family of chips. The Sunnyvale, Calif., chip maker announced Dec. 12 that it would begin shipping the Athlon 64 X2 5400+ and the 5600+ to OEMs, which AMD said will include Dell. The Round Rock, Texas, PC maker already uses Athlon processors in its line of Dimension desktops. Since dual-core chips were first introduced by Intel, with the Pentium Extreme Edition 840 processor in 2005, and later by AMD, OEMs, such as Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo and Gateway, have all begun offering numerous high-end desktops and notebooks that feature the technology, which offers two processing cores on a single piece of silicon.
In a statement, AMD officials said the two new dual-core processors would offer better graphics performance, while reducing power costs. The two chips will also support Microsoft"s Windows Vista operating system, which requires a much more powerful processor in order for users to access all its features. The 5400+ and the 5600+ each offer speeds of 2.8GHz, an AM2 socket and an 89-watt thermal design. With the 5400+, AMD is offering 512MB per core of L2 cache memory, while the 5600+ offers 1MB per core of L2 cache memory.