AMD beats Intel in 1 GHz race

BANGALORE: AMD has beaten Intel Corporation in the game of chip speed by

introducing the one-gigahertz (1000 mega hertz) microprocessor for volume sales

on Monday. It released it 1GHz Athlon chip ahead of giant Intel. The latter is

expected to launch its version of 1GHz microprocessor later this week.

The event marks the achievement of a new milestone by the chip industry,

which is known to be obsessed with speed. Intel has already showcased its

prototype of 1.5 GHz chip, which is expected to be launched during the last

quarter of this year. AMD and Intel have been fighting for supremacy in chip

speed. Prior to this, Intel’s fastest Pentium III chip had a speed of 800 MHz

as compared to 850MHz of AMD’s Athlon.

However, these PCs are expected to be exorbitantly costlier than their slower

versions. Along with its 1-GHz Athlon, AMD also introduced 900-MHz and 950-MHz

Athlon processors. It has priced the 1-GHz Athlon at $1,299 in units of 1,000

and the 900-MHz and 950-MHz at $899 and $999, respectively. Compaq Computer and

Gateway have already introduced their 1-GHz Athlon consumer PCs, while Dell

Computer, Hewlett-Packard, IBM and Micron are backing the 1GHz Pentium III.

It will take a while for both AMD and Intel to ship the chips in bigger

volumes to the market. AMD's stock crossed the 52-week high of $47 to close at

$47.5, gaining about 15 per cent over the previous close.