Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2001/05/10/amd_palomino_to_ship_as/

AMD Palomino to ship as Athlon 4

Free the Pentium 4

By Tony Smith

Posted in Channel, 10th May 2001 11:50 GMT

AMD will dub the next member of the Athlon family, codenamed Palomino, the Athlon 4, according to an anonymous source cited by Ace's Hardware.

Said throat claims AMD is already using the term in its internal documentation. The logical conclusion is that the company has chosen the name - if, indeed, it has - to improve Athlon's chances of competing with Intel's Pentium 4.

Or perhaps - snigger, snigger - to help the P4 compete with the Athlon. The P4 certainly seems to need a hand at the moment.

Whatever, Ace's Hardware sees a clear correlation between K6-2, up against the PII; the K6-III, a rival to the PIII; and the Athlon 4, which will go head-to-head with the P4.

Then again, to the outside world of consumer and business computing, there's effectively only been one other Athlon - those of us who've watched the core know differently, of course - so the new name isn't as logical as it might at first seem.

But since when has logic ever had anything to do with it? Why K6-III and not the more obvious K6-3? Or Pentium IV and not Pentium 4, for that matter?

Hopefully, we'll find out at AMD's big event next week on the 15th. ®

Related Link

Ace's Hardware's terse Athlon 4 story