[Alpine]

Dual-core buster

AMD HAS A CUNNING plan to introduce a cut-price AM2 Athlon 64 X2 to help it combat the threat posed by Intel's dual-core chippery.


Taiwanese board makers told Digitimes they are expecting a memory-slashed 2GHz Athlon 64 X2 chip to tip up in the final quarter of this year.

Sporting just 256KB of level-two (L2) cache per core, compared with the 512KB of its elder brother, the new 3600+ will be nicely priced.

The Taiwanese paper says its sources say it'll cost between $140-$160.

The pricing can be nothing more than a guestimate, however. AMD is likley to hang on and wait from Intel to lay out its stall before counter-attacking. And the bigger chip maker - as opposed to the maker of bigger chips - has already begun wielding the price-cutting axe to make room for captain Conroe.

The INQuirer