AMD's Duron targets value PCs

From...

April 28, 2000
Web posted at: 12:16 p.m. EDT (1616 GMT)

by Tom Mainelli

(IDG) -- With its Athlon processor successfully challenging Intel at the higher end of the PC processor market, Advanced Micro Devices returns to its roots in the low-end chip market with its announcement of a new processor named Duron for value-priced PCs.

AMD says the Duron, formerly code-named Spitfire, will begin shipping in volume this June, but the company won't disclose initial speed ratings or pricing.

The Duron is the successor to the company's K6-2 and K6-III desktop processors, says Mark Bode, a division marketing manager at AMD. The K6-2 is the company's highest volume CPU and will likely remain on the market into next year.

MORE COMPUTING INTELLIGENCE

IDG.net home page

PC World home page

FileWorld find free software fast

Make your PC work harder with these tips

E-BusinessWorld

Reviews & in-depth info at IDG.net

IDG.net's personal news page

Year 2000 World

Questions about computers? Let IDG.net's editors help you

Subscribe to IDG.net's free daily newsletter for computer geniuses (& newbies)

Search IDG.net in 12 languages

News Radio

Fusion audio primers

Computerworld Minute

The Duron--a Latin-derived name that means roughly "lasting unit"--will compete directly with Intel's Celeron processor, appearing in sub-$1000 PCs. AMD won't disclose which PC vendors it expects to offer Duron-based systems at launch, but Bode says consumers should see some systems by the third quarter of the year.

The company is releasing few details about the chip itself, which is based on the well-regarded Athlon design. The Duron will have a 200-MHz front-side bus, AMD's 3DNow technology, and a full-speed, on-die L2 cache, Bode says. The company won't disclose the size of that L2 cache

While AMD won't offer speed or pricing details about the June launch, Bode says the first Duron will offer comparable speeds and competitive prices to Celeron products available at the same time.

What's in a name?

Announcing a new brand name for its latest processor is a smart move by AMD, says Nathan Brookwood, analyst for Insight 64, a research firm in Saratoga, California. The move aims to let the company portray different attributes of the chip, and cast off some of the limitations of the K6 brand.

The K6 brand has long been associated with value pricing, but less so with great technology, Brookwood says. (He also points out that the K-branding had a limited lifespan--since a "K9" was out of the question.)

AMD faces bigger problems than choosing a new name, Brookwood says. Chief among those could be convincing vendors to switch from the K-6 to the new chip, with its different motherboard requirements. "The transition could be complicated," he says.

Another potential difficulty is that Duron could cannibalize low-end Athlon sales, he comments.

It's a problem Intel faced last year when its Celeron processor speeds approached the performance levels of its PII chips, which hurt PII sales. Intel now maintains a larger performance gap between its two processor lines, and AMD will have to work to do the same thing, Brookwood says.

Intel's 1-GHz Pentium III edges AMD's Athlon
March 9, 2000
Free software from CA and AMD manages desktops
February 10, 2000
AMD announces 800-MHz Athlon
January 7, 2000
AMD's K7: Better than Intel's best processor?
July 8, 1999
Game developers rally behind the AMD-K6
February 17, 1999

AMD ships 1-GHz Athlon
(PC World Online)
Top 10 budget PCs
(PC World Online)
New Intel Celerons to battle AMD's Spitfire
(IDG.net)
AMD answers Intel's SpeedStep with PowerNow
(InfoWorld.com)
AMD's 1-GHz Athlon: Test results
(PC World Online)
AMD + Intel: Playing leapfrog
(PC World Online)

Advanced Micro Devices

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.