'AMD confirms Palomino will launch in Fall' shouts a PC World.com headline today, though really it's not much of admission that the chip company has actually made.

AMD's roadmap has long shown Palomino - the latest generation desktop Athlon - shipping in the second half of this year. Narrowing the focus from six months to three isn't that big an issue.

Our ears have heard the date 12 October whispered in relation to the Athlon XP's currently scheduled launch date, three days before AMD techies spill the beans on Hammer at Microprocessor Forum and three days after AMD launches the 1.53GHz Athlon MP chip.

That said, an AMD spokesman does appear to have admitted to PC World.com that the part will ship at 1.53GHz, which most AMD watchers have been aware of for some time, but the company has so far refused to confirm.

To that we can add that Palomino, which as we reported t'other day will be marketed as the Athlon XP, will be fabbed at 0.18 micron. As it uses the same basic technology as the Athlon 4 and Athlon MP, we can say it will be compatible with Intel's SSE instructions and support AMD's PowerNow! 2 technology. ®

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PC World: AMD confirms Palomino will launch in Fall