Advanced Micro Devices Inc. AMD.N, Intel Corp."s principal rival in the market for microprocessors, on Tuesday will unveil four new, speedier Athlon chips, hoping to stall Intel"s recent market share gains against AMD.
The long-expected announcement will be twinned with an appearance by AMD"s founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Jerry Sanders at the Fairmont Hotel here on Tuesday morning. AMD issued a short notice that Sanders would be on hand to announce a new strategic initiative and "formally launch a new AMD product."
Until just a few months ago, Intel INTC.O and AMD routinely swapped the title of selling the fastest microprocessor, which has been the most widely used gauge of a chip"s performance.
Now, however, Intel has a Pentium 4 chip running at 2 gigahertz available, while AMD has yet to reach the 2 gigahertz threshold.