AMD will introduce its newest desktop PC processor, the 1.8GHz Athlon XP 2200+, next Monday, sources say.
The new chip, AMD's highest-performance desktop chip to date, gains nearly 70MHz over its predecessor, the Athlon XP 2100+.
With the new chip available, PC makers such as Hewlett-Packard (news - web sites) are expected to debut several new desktops. Among those, HP will have desktops under both HP Pavilion and Compaq (news - web sites) Presario brands, sources said.
The introduction of the new chip will also reignite the three-year-old Athlon-versus-Pentium battle waged between AMD and rival chipmaker Intel.
While the Athlon XP doesn't offer the same clock speed as Intel's Pentium 4, AMD says the chip does more work per clock cycle, allowing it to match or beat a faster Pentium 4.
This time, however, though the Athlon XP 2200+ continues to match most Pentium 4s, analysts said it is likely to be outpaced by the two fastest chips from Intel: the 2.4GHz and 2.53GHz Pentium 4s.
|