AMD, Intel neck and neck during 2002

WE THINK IT'S worth comparing the most recent desktop roadmaps we've now seen for both Intel and AMD because both firms are virtually neck and neck in the performance race during this year.

It's evident from the roadmaps we've seen that AMD believes introduction of its Clawhammer technology will give it a significant lead towards the end of the year.

For the first time we're able to contrast the price of systems, as AMD now uses the same broad segment classification as Intel.

AMD uses the PR+ rating rather than the mehahertz values Intel employs, but we'll look at that in more detail later.

Here's our summary of Intel's 2002 desktop CPUs.

	System	Q1 2002	Q2 2002	Q3 2002
Pentium 4	>$1,500	2.2GHz	2.4GHz	2.53/2.5GHz
Performance	>$1,300	2.0GHz	2.26/2.20GHz	2.4GHz
	>$1,000	1.9/1.8GHz	2GHz	2.26/2.2GHz
	>$800	1.7/1.6GHz	1.9/1.80GHz	2/1.9GHz
Celeron	>$700	1.3GHz	1.4GHz	1.8/1.50GHz
Value	>$600	1.2GHz	1.30GHz	1.40GHz
	<$600	1.10, 1GHz	1.20GHz	1.30GHz

Legend
Light orange: Pentium 4 .18 micron
Dark orange: Pentium 4 .13 micron (Northwood)
Light blue: Celeron Pentium III .13 micron
Dark blue: Celeron Pentium 4 .18 micron

Note that Intel begins to change its Celerons from Pentium III cores to Pentium 4 cores in the third quarter - they will initially use .18 micron technology with a 400MHz front side bus (FSB).

Here's the AMD equivalent we published a few days ago:

	System	Q1 2002	Q2 2002	Q3 2002
Athlon XP	>$1,500	2000+	2200+	2600+
Performance	>$1,300	1900+	2000+	2400+
	>$1,000	1800+	1900+	2200+
	>$800	1700+/1600+	1800+/1700+	2000+
Duron	>$700	1300	1400	1800+ (266)
Mainstream	>$600	1200/1100	1300/1200	1500
	<$600	1000	1100	1400

Legend
Light orange: XP Palomino
Dark orange: Duron Morgan
Light blue: XP Thoroughbred
Dark blue: Duron Appaloosa (266MHz FSB)

We've published further details of Intel's roadmap in Q4 - we haven't seen the equivalent Q4 for AMD yet. The Intel variant says that there will be speeds 2.53GHz and greater at the highest performance level, and we presume the target is 3GHz. AMD will need to get its act together on the Clawhammer - it does now seem to us it is on target to deliver round about that time frame.

We're also intrigued as to where these roadmaps will go in 2003. We know Intel, like AMD, will start to use .09 micron technology and second in command Paul Otellini has talked before about speeds of the Pentium 4 scaling up to 5GHz and beyond.

But the introduction of the Hammer technology next year gives an interesting twist to that equation - and whether it will be possible to compare AMD architecture with Intel architecture as directly as we've done with the deskop CPU maps above is highly unlikely, it seems to us. µ