Athlon 64 enters mass market

THE EDITOR of the Microprocessor Report said that AMD's Athlon 64 chip is now moving into the mass market, with systems available for far less than $1,000.

Peter Glaskowsky said that while the Athlon 64 was introduced at the high end of the PC market, it's moving fast into midrange and also low end systems using integrated graphics chipsets from the like of little SIS and Via.

SIS and Via, he said, have chipsets with built in graphics accelerators, which is why system builders are able to pare costs, but says the performance of these companion chips are "mediocre" when compared to separate graphics cards which cost $100-$200 more.

But Glaskowsky warns that AMD risks cannibalising sales of its high end products, although that's outweighed by the possibility of stealing sales from Intel.

He said: "AMD is eating its own children in a way that will, in the long run, surely help it to expand the family".

Eek! That's one way to raise a family, we suppose. µ

L'INQ
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