AMD releases low-watt processors as part of cold war

Adam Turner
Wednesday, 21 February 2007 00:31

Your IT - Home IT

AMD continues its cold war with Intel, releasing two cooler, low-watt processors along with another dual-core power house.

The single-core, 45-watt Athlon 64 3500+ and 3800+ processors are not new models, but they'll now be made using the 65-nanometer manufacturing process as part of AMD's energy efficiency drive. They're accompanied by the 3GHz dual-core, 125-watt Athlon 64 X2 6000+, made using the older 90-nanometer manufacturing process.

The quieter, cooler chips are specifically targeted at small form factor designs such as lounge room-based Home Theatre PCs. They're expected to be immediately available in the channel and from OEMs including Alienware, Fujitsu Siemens Computers, Systemax and Voodoo.

The announcement follows AMD's recent release of dual-core Opteron server processors which also offered low-watt options. A recent study cited by AMD found US data centers annually consume the output of five 1000 megawatt power plants.