AMD Unveils First Athlon II Triple-Cores

Advanced Micro Devices released eight new Athlon II desktop processors Tuesday, including the chip maker's first-ever triple-core chips in that product family. AMD introduced four of the low-price triple-cores, dubbed the Athlon II X3, ranging in price from $76 to $102 in 1,000-unit quantities.

The fastest parts are also the hottest, with the 2.7-GHz Athlon II X3 425, priced at $76, and the 2.9-GHz Athlon II X3 435, priced at $87, drawing 95 watts. Two lower-power triple-cores, the 2.2-GHz Athlon II X3 400e, $97, and the 2.3-GHz Athlon II X3 405e, $102, are 45W parts.

Rounding out the new Athlon II lineup from Sunnyvale, Calif.-based AMD are a pair of quad-cores and a pair of dual-cores, all of them 45W processors. The quad-cores are the 2.2-GHz Athlon II X4 600e, priced at $133, and the 2.3-GHz Athlon II X4 605e, priced at $143. The dual-cores are the 2.7-GHz Athlon II X2 235e, a $69 chip, and the 2.8-GHz Athlon II X2 240e, a $77 part.

All of the new Athlon IIs are products of AMD's current-generation 45-nanometer process technology.

AMD appears to be matching several of its newest desktop chips against specific products from its larger rival, Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel. The smaller chip maker claimed Tuesday that the 2.9-GHz, $87 Athlon II X3 435 delivers "up to 75 percent better media and entertainment performance" than Intel's Core 2 Duo E8500, a 3.16-GHz dual-core chip listed at $183 on Intel's price list.

The company also compares its new 2.8-Ghz, $77 Athlon II X2 240e dual-core to Intel's 2.8-GHz, $113 Core 2 Duo E7400, claiming in a statement that the Athlon II "performs up to 70 percent better in media and entertainment benchmarks."

AMD introduced its first triple-core processors, the Phenom X3 line, in March 2008. In February of this year, the company followed up with triple-core Phenom II X3 products.