WE REPORTED last September that HP's quick spec page for its d325 business class PC revealed an AMD Athlon XP 3200+ processor which sported a 333 FSB and a frequency of 2.33GHz. We also said that if the chip was genuine it would make it the highest frequency Athlon product to date. Well, it is for real, and is now available as a configurable option on the aforementioned PC. This part appears to be exclusive to HP, as I've not seen it touted elsewhere. This wouldn't be the first time that AMD has done exclusive deals with its partners. eMachines use to offer desktop PCs powered by an Athlon XP 2300+ processor, which I never saw offered by any other PC manufacturer. AMD's public data sheets do not mention these devices at all, which would indicate that they're just vendor specific.
We also said that it may be possible for AMD to ship this 2.33 GHz device with a slower 266 FSB and sell it as an Athlon MP 3000+, which would nicely round out the platform's offerings. On AMD's latest data sheet for its model 10 Athlon MP processor, its 2600+ model is now a Barton device, which operates at 2 GHz. Its 2800+ sibling operates at 2.133 GHz. If AMD used the current scaling and just added 133 MHz to its current top-end Athlon MP device, an Athlon MP 3000+ with a 2.266 GHz clock rate would be easier to bring to market.
AMD's last Athlon MP debut was at the beginning of last May, which was seven months ago. So isn't it now time that AMD delivered what would probably be the last Athlon MP device? It would certainly add some much needed appeal to that platform.
News source: The Inq
