Fresh from the successful hype of its K7 (Athlon) family, AMD is now gearing up for the K8, its 64-bit follow-up. The company goes public on the K8 at, next month's Microprocessor Forum -- we understand. But the clone chip firm refuses to confirm or deny such a chip is on the cards. AMD reckons it's piling the pressure on Intel with the K7. And a quick introduction of the K8 would certainly give something for Chipzilla to think about. AMD aims turn up the heat by launching its next generation of (64-bit) processors within months -- and it has enlisted top chip engineer Jim Keller (a former Alpha male)to make it happen. He worked on the Alpha 21264 - a seriously out of order chip. He is likely to make the K8 seriously out of order too, meaning Intel will feel seriously out of order. The step up from 32-bit Athlon K7 to a 64-bit K8 (Octathlon?) chip is relatively trivial to achieve, we are led to understand, from sources close to the company's plans. So the 64-bit chip scene could look fairly crowded next year, with competing flavours from Compaq, Intel -- and now AMD. Compaq and Intel will also take steps to make sure the developer community is aware of their future 64-bit plans. Compaq already has a 64-bit chip while Intel's Merced is close to fruition. ®