AMD today officially launched its 1.4GHz Athlon and 950MHz Duron chips which went on sale in Japan last week.

Compaq has started offering systems based on the 1.4GHz processor, while AMD says machines from Hewlett-Packard, MicronPC and NEC-CI are also on their way.

The chip is available with a 200MHz or 266MHz frontside bus and costs $253 (as part of a 1000-unit order). The 950MHz Duron costs $122.

AMD claims systems based on the 1.4GHz Athlon chip, with DDR memory, outperform Intel's 1.7GHz Pentium 4-based systems.

AMD yesterday unveiled the Athlon MP processor, aimed at workstation and server systems. The MP chip is based on AMD's new Palomino core. The 1.4GHz Athlon is based on the older Thunderbird core and will probably be the last T'bird before AMD launches desktop Palominos next month. ®

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