AMD is to sell low-wattage processors in a bid to join the campaign of many IT companies to be seen to be green.

The manufacturer, which says the chips are for "energy-conscious [people] or high-performance computing", has launched two 45-watt AMD Athlon 64 single-core processors, (3500+ and 3800+) and the AMD Athlon 64 X2 dual-core processor 6000+.

The 3500+ and 3800+ processors are based on 65nm technology. The company says that using reduced-line widths it can produce processors on a 300mm wafer, while manufacturing processors designed for low-power consumption.

There's been a lot of noise around energy-efficient computing initiatives. Most large vendors dealing in computer components, such as Dell, HP, Intel and Cisco have launched similar schemes as electricity prices rise and pressure increases on corporations to cut carbon emissions.

The new processors are to go on sale immediately. The 3500+ and 3800+ are $88 (£45) and $93 (£47), respectively, and the 6000+ is $464 (£238).