Advanced Micro Devices Launching Two Athlon Microprocessors

Chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices (AMD Quote - Cramer on AMD - Stock Picks) on Thursday is launching two new premium microprocessors in its Athlon line.

In addition, AMD says it now plans to delay until the third quarter launching the desktop versions of the Palomino chip, which will eventually replace the Athlon, and the Morgan, which is the successor to the lower-end Duron. AMD says it's delaying the launches because it's been able to make Athlon and Duron faster sooner than it had anticipated and because it wants to focus on the mobile and server markets.

AMD is gaining market share from competitor Intel (INTC Quote - Cramer on INTC - Stock Picks) and is beginning to make some inroads into Intel's hold on the desirable corporate market. In the continuing battle, Intel launched a new chip for the server market on Wednesday. Meanwhile, both companies have had to cope with lower demand for the personal computers that use these microprocessors.

AMD says it will launch a 1.33-gigahertz and 1.3-gigahertz Athlon that will list for $350 and $318, respectively. Currently, its fastest chip is the 1.2-gigahertz Athlon, which was introduced in October and sells for $294. When the new chips are used in conjunction with the nascent form of DRAM, or dynamic random access memory, called DDR, or double data rate, AMD says they perform better than Intel's Pentium 4 with RDRAM, or Rambus DRAM.

While it's delaying desktop versions of the Palomino and Morgan chips, AMD has begun shipping Palomino chips for the higher-end mobile and server markets, according to Mike de Frere, Athlon brand manager. It's also begun delivering the lower-end Morgan for the mobile market, he said.

When it does launch the desktop versions, De Frere said that the Palomino will be available at or above 1.5-gigahertz, rather than the 1.2-gigahertz it had planned. The Morgan desktop chip will be launched at or above 900 MHz, rather than the initially planned 800 MHz.