AMD Pledges Dual-Core Athlon 64 by End of 2005

AMD has pledged to ship a dual-core version of its x64-compatible Athlon 64 chip by the end of 2005, turning up the heat on rival Intel. The announcement comes just a day after Intel released x64-compatible versions of the Pentium 4 microprocessor. Chips based on the x64 platform process data in 64-bit chunks, and can address far more memory than today’s 32-bit x86-based designs. However, the retain full compatibility with x86 software.

"Since 1999, we’ve been developing a multi-core strategy in collaboration with our customers," said AMD corporate vice president Marty Seyer, who oversees the Computation Products Group of the company’s Microprocessor Business Unit. "Because customer needs drive our innovations, customers will be able to adopt upcoming dual-core AMD64 processor-based systems without disrupting their existing infrastructure. We are committed to introducing straightforward technologies that deliver the best performance."

Dual core microprocessors feature two processor cores in a single chip, giving users most of the benefits and performance of two discrete microprocessors. Although modern operating systems such as Windows XP Professional are designed to support two processors, today, most PCs ship with just a single processor. Dual-core chips will help users economically gain better performance across the board while using such operating systems.

AMD Pledges Dual-Core Athlon 64 by End of 2005
Windows IT Pro