Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) aims to strengthen its position in the entry-level processor market by introducing a 32-bit CPU, codenamed Athlon XP Paris, in the third quarter of this year, according to sources at Taiwanese motherboard makers.
The 754-pin Paris will be targeted for the desktop and will be fully based on the K8 micro-architecture, with 256KB of L2 cache, but will not support AMD64, i.e. x86-64 technology, said the sources.
With the introduction of the Athlon XP Paris, AMD's existing Athlon XP Socket A/462 processors will be gradually phased out, the sources said.
The Athlon XP Paris is also pin-to-pin compatible with the Athlon 64 processor, so local motherboard makers can use the same chipsets and/or boards to support both the high-end 64-bit processors and the entry-level 32-bit processors, said the sources.
News source: digitimes.com
