Both AMD and Intel have been involved in a fierce battle for processor supremacy. This time however, they decided to push things even further. Today both companies announced their fastest, smallest ever chips, AMD's XP 2000+ and Intel's Pentium 4 2.2 GHz.
AMD will be looking to maintain their current good run, as far as sales are concerned, which was caused partly by Pentium 4 shortages.
Systems featuring the AMD Athlon XP processor 2000+ are expected to be immediately available from Compaq in the U.S. Other top-tier manufacturers, including Hewlett-Packard Company and MicronPC, LLC in the U.S., and NEC-CI in Europe have already agreed to distribute the chip.
Intel's new chip will be the first in the Pentium 4 range to feature a 0.13 micron design which will give the company precious pricing flexibility, since production for such chips is very cost efficient.
There is no certain way of telling which chip will prevail. In many ways the outcome depends on AMD's ability to convince both consumers and suppliers that their lower clock speed (the XP 2000+ runs at 1.664 GHz)does not mean lower performance.
In order to convince the public that this is the case, AMD have released a comprehensive series of benchmark tests comparing the Athlon XP 2000+ with Intel's Pentium 4 2Ghz. These tests show that AMD's chip is in many ways superior to Intel's 2 GHz offering. Will this be the case with the 2.2 GHz chip? Stay tuned for a comparison of the XP 2000+ with the Pentium 4 2.2 GHz.
Press the download tab to find the link for the full benchmarking tests.