AMD executives said its new chips won't be the cr鑝e de la cr鑝e of its desktop product line.Everywhere you look, it's dual-this, dual-that. AMD's (and recently, Intel's) dual-core processors have been big news in the industry, with speculation, rumors, and all of that other stuff flying left and right. AMD executives have finally let loose and given us a few gems.
One such gem is that the dual-core Athlon 64s will not be replacing the Athlon 64 FXs as the flagship chips, as most people have assumed. AMD will continue to push the Athlon 64 FX as the "ultimate PC processor", oriented towards gamers and overclockers.
"The idea here is to position the dual core in those segments which will see the most immediate need for multithreading: content creation and digital media usage," deOnis said.
When asked about the expected pricing of the new chips, deOnis declined to comment.
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According to one analyst, AMD will likely concentrate its dual-core efforts on the workstation and server space, where both operating systems and applications have been designed with multithreaded applications in mind.
There's another little mention of something that I think we've all been waiting to hear: Dual-core Athlon 64s will be Socket-939-compatible, and "most" customers should be able to make the switch with only a BIOS upgrade.
All I can say is "w00t!". :-)
Article Link: AMD's Dual-Core Strategy: A Change-Up?
