AMD has been trying for years to offer serious competition to Intel in the chip market, but until now its efforts have been frustrated - sometimes by manufacturing problems, sometimes by technical issues, and always by Intel's deep pockets, which allow it to undersell its rivals whenever its market share shows signs of slipping, as it did earlier this year. Another rival, Cyrix, couldn't take the pressure and shuttered its doors this past spring. MORE >>
New PC Processor the Fastest Yet
650 megahertz is the magic number -- that's how
fast the new processor from Advanced Micro
Devices Inc. runs, faster than Intel's
formerly-state-of-the-art Pentium III, which runs at
600 MHz, and faster than anything currently
available for the PC. AMD's new chip, the Athlon
(who comes up with these names?), will officially
go on the market next week. Can it do what so
many have failed to do before - dethrone Intel?