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AMD Athlon 64 Set for Sept. 23 Launch

Chipmaker AMD on Wednesday set a Sept. 23 launch date for its AMD Athlon 64 processor, a 64-bit processor designed specifically for desktop and notebook PCs.

Like the AMD Opteron, a server processor launched in April, the Athlon 64 will use the x86 instruction set to run both 32-bit and 64-bit applications. The approach contrasts with the Intel approach with Itanium, which uses the new EPIC instruction set for 64-bit applications and ran 32-bit applications at very slow speeds. Intel is addressing the problem with a 32-bit software emulator for Itanium 2 that it is previewing for customers using the Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 beta.

AMD's Sept. 23 launch in San Francisco meets the company's public roadmaps to deliver the Athlon 64 chip in September.

About the Author

Scott Bekker is editor in chief of Redmond Channel Partner magazine.

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