[BobyJo]

AMD To Release 2800+ and 2700+ Microprocessors
Posted by Chris Emmerson-Pace @ 12:58 pm PST

To compete with Intel's 2.66GHz and 2.8GHz Pentium 4s, Advanced Micro Devices announced late Tuesday the limited November availability and wide December/January availability of its new Athlon XP 2800+ and 2700+ microprocessors.

The XP 2800+ and 2700+ both use a 333MHz frontside bus (FSB), a step up from AMD's previous 2400+ and 2600+ microprocessors, which both use a 266MHz FSB.

Bus speed, however, is not the only difference in AMD's latest microprocessors. Clock speeds have also improved, with Athlon XP 2700+ at 2.166GHz and 2800+ at 2.25GHz compared to the older 2400+ at 2.0GHz and 2600+ at 2.133GHz.

All four versions still have the same 0.13-micron process QuantiSpeed architecture with 128K of Level 1 and 256K of Level 2 cache.

AMD's new processors are geared towards performance-oriented gamers and users who like to build and tweak their own systems for optimization.

Enthusiast-friendly manufacturers that will likely offer the new AMD processors are ABS, Alienware, Falcon Northwest, MicronPC, and Voodoo PC.

The new XP 2700+ and 2800+ are respectively priced at $349 and $397 apiece in 1,000-unit quantities. By comparison, Intel's 2.66GHz and 2.8GHz Pentium 4s are $401 and $508, respectively.