Advanced Micro Devices Inc’s 650MHz Athlon chip could help it retain its performance lead over Intel Corp until the seventh generation Willamette chip ships in the second half of 2000, according to the Microprocessor Report. Intel’s first chance of catching up will be the .18 micron Coppermine, expected to be clocked at 667MHz when it ships in November, with a rapid boost up to 733MHz. But the Report says that if AMD can crank the .25 micron Athlon up to 700MHz and then quickly move to .18 micron itself (initially from its Austin, Texas-based Fab 25, and then with .18 micron copper from Fab 30 in Dresden early next year) it will keep the lead.
This, of course, assumes that AMD won’t have any of the supply problems it’s been plagued with over the past few years, and that it can make a smooth transition over to .18 micron, adding Level 2 cache and a set of derivative products along the way. One minus point is that AMD’s 750 support chip, similar to Intel’s 440BX chipset, will look like the previous generation of chipset once Intel’s Camino finally comes out. But a related advantage will be that AMD won’t have to impose the 50% or so retail price hike that Intel’s Rambus Direct RAM is expected to result in, compared to PC100 SDRAM AMD can use.
