The long-awaited launch of Advanced Micro Devices Inc."s (AMD"s) Athlon64 processor is less than a week away, and it"s only a matter of time before rival Intel Corp. duplicates AMD"s approach, the company said Wednesday.
AMD thinks it has a winner with the Athlon64, which can run both 64-bit and 32-bit applications on a PC with a 64-bit operating system. The idea is to give users excellent 32-bit performance right away, and allow them to migrate to 64-bit applications when they are ready, said John Crank, senior brand manager for AMD"s Athlon product line.
AMD will launch the chip on Tuesday at an event in San Francisco. Desktop and notebooks will be available with the processor as of Tuesday, Crank said.