AMD unveils chips to take on Intel

AMD unveiled two new desktop microprocessors this week, but consumers won't be able to get them until next month.

The US chipmaker said it has begun to ship its Athlon XP 2600+ and 2400+ processors to manufacturers. However, consumers won't be able to buy the chips, or computers running them, until September, the company said.

The announcement, as expected, comes amid a desperate race between AMD and longtime rival Intel. With the downturn in the PC market, the two companies are cutting prices and raising the speed of their microprocessors to gain as much market share as possible and curtail revenue declines. Last quarter, Intel regained six points of market share, on a year-to-year basis, partly through price cuts.

Next week, Intel is expected to release four new Pentium 4 processors for desktops, including a 2.8GHz Pentium 4, and follow up with substantial price cuts. AMD, meanwhile, is already cutting prices.

The smaller company achieved an important milestone earlier this week when Hewlett-Packard adopted one of its Athlon chips for a computer aimed at the medium-sized business, education, and government markets. The deal marks the first time a "big three" manufacturer has adopted the company's processors for the business market.

AMD's latest chip to this point, the Athlon XP 2200+, came out in June and could be bought the same day it was announced on computers from HP, among others.

The Athlon XP 2600+ will run at 2.133GHz the 2400+ will run at 2GHz, said Nathan Brookwood, an analyst at Insight 64. Although slower in terms of megahertz, the upcoming Athlons boast performance that's roughly comparable to that of Intel's best chips.

Michael Kanellos and John G. Spooner write for News.com