AMD launch new chips
Mobile Athlons and a new desktop Duron
AMD has launched its 1.1GHz mobile Athlon 4 and a 900MHz mobile Duron alongside it. On the desktop side of things, AMD surprised everybody by launching the 1GHz Duron (codenamed Morgan) ahead of its Palomino Athlons. While the mobile CPUs are quite pricey at the moment (about the same as desktop CPUs were a while ago), the 1GHz Duron desktop chip will slot neatly into the current pricing structure, appearing in new PCs within a couple of months. Of course, given the cost of current Athlon chips (as low as £110 for a 1.4GHz processor), one has to ask quite why we need all these speed grades and so-called budget chips. Why buy a 1GHz Duron for nearly £80 when you can spend the cost of your next game on doubling the performance? Related Feature - AMD Athlon 1.33GHz review
