Updated AMD is taking its lead from the Beast of Redmond, and in a desperate bid to imply new, relevant and up-to-date technology, will name its next desktop processor the Athlon XP - after Microsoft's new version of Windows.

So say our industry sources, and confirmed by an item over at DigiTimes - which seems more interested in the advantages the new chip brings to mobo makers than this blatant attempt to cash in on someone else's product.

Interestingly, we hear that the Athlon XP will, like its Microsoft namesake, be launched in October. So far, we and other observers had been expecting a September launch, a fact previously confirmed by AMD insiders. We've had the date 12 October mentioned to us in connection with the Athlon XP's official launch.

The company's official line is that details of the announcement will released in due course, but with there being less time in September to invite reporters and analysts to an upcoming launch - let alone stage the thing - we wonder if the company has indeed moved back the chip's debut to coincide with the OS launch.

The Athlon XP - if such it is named - is based on the latest-generation Palomino core. It is expected to ship at 1.5GHz, but DigiTimes notes that the base processor is likely to be 1.33GHz. How can we reconciles these facts? Because the 1.33GHz CPU will have a model number of 1500+, to suggest that it has an Intel-equivalent clock speed of 1.5GHz. There will be a 1.5GHz Athlon XP, but it will have a model number of 1800+, viz: