AMD has taken the axe to prices across its desktop, mobile and server processor line-ups with particular emphasis on the Opteron range: server chip prices were this week cut by up to 54.2 per cent, some older models were dropped and new dual-core 2xx and 8xx series parts added to the range.

Among the chips added to AMD's price list this week are the dual-core Opteron 275 HE and the 875 HE, priced at $1,051 and $2,149, respectively. The other 2xx HE and 8xx HE parts saw there prices pushed down accordingly, by 34.3 to 54.2 per cent. AMD cut its regular dual-core Opteron 2xx and 8xx series chip prices, and those of the single-core 2xx and 8xx models, by the same margins.

At the same time, it dropped the 240 EE and 840 EE chips, along with all the 1xx HE parts - the 148, 146 and 140.

The cuts follow recent reductions made to other chip lines. Athlon 64 X2 prices recently fell by between 19.9 per cent and 7.9 per cent, with the 4800+'s price falling from $803 to $643. The cuts didn't take in the single-core Athlon 64 line-up or the Athlon 64 FX chips, but Mobile Athlon 64 prices dropped by 12.4 per cent to 7.3 per cent - the 3000+ and 3700+'s prices were unchanged, however.

AAMD also recently pruned the prices of its top-end Turion 64 chips, from the ML-32 upwards. Prices fell by up to 32.6 per cent - the top-of-the-range ML-44 fell from $525 to $354 - down to 5.8 per cent for the ML-32.

The Mobile Sempron lines for both full-size and for thin'n'light notebooks saw their prices trimmed a few percentage points, making room for the new Mobile Sempron 3400+ for full-size machines. ®