AMD fans can breathe now — the chipmaker has finally shipped its long-anticipated “Thoroughbred” desktop CPU. Hailing from AMD’s Fab 30 in Dresden, Germany, the new Athlon XP 2200+ is built using an 0.13-micron copper process versus prior versions’ 0.18-micron process, letting AMD create a smaller, less power-hungry chip while maintaining compatibility with its proven Socket A infrastructure.
The Athlon XP 2200+ features a 1.8GHz clock speed, along with the same 266MHz front-side bus and 128K Level 1 plus 256K Level 2 cache as previous Athlon XP processors (the forthcoming “Barton” variant is expected to boost the L2 cache to 512K). It’s priced at $241 in 1,000-unit quantities.
According to AMD, the 2200+ outperforms Intel’s 2.2GHz Pentium 4 in a wide variety of applications, though benchmark junkies will note it’s not intended to reclaim the 2.53GHz Pentium 4’s current speed records. Hewlett-Packard Co. has added the Athlon XP 2200+ to its build-to-order Compaq Presario 8000Z and HP Pavilion 562 series of home PCs.
Eric Grevstad is managing editor of sister site, HardwareCentral.
