Pricing/Availability

Availability

So when should we expect the AMD Athlon processor with performance-enhancing cache memory to debut? Actually, AMD is already shipping both aluminum and copper Athlon processors right now to its customers!

Like the Athlon launch last August, these processors will initially go to the OEM market, but by the end of this month Thunderbirds should begin creeping on retail shelves.

With the increased performance, we initially expected AMD to charge more for Thunderbird cores than traditional Athlon's. However, it turns out that AMD is charging the same price for both processors.

Of course, just because both processors cost the same to the vendor doesn't mean they'll cost the same for the consumer. We fully expect the Thunderbird to cost more than the original Athlon, after all, if you can get a faster processor for the same price, what's the point of buying the slower processor? (Other than compatability with your Slot A motherboard of course) For this reason vendors will most likely charge less for 512K Athlons with the intention of quickly getting rid of the older processors.

So how can you tell the difference between a Thunderbird and a regular Athlon? As we mentioned before, conventional Athlon's won't be available in the Socket A format. In fact, AMD no longer manufactures them, so if you see a Socket A Athlon it's obviously based on the Thunderbird core. Likewise, if the processor features 256K L2 cache, it also has to be a Thunderbird processor.

What about the motherboards?

With the arrival of a new interface, new motherboards will also be necessary. If you recall the Athlon's original debut last August, only a handful of motherboards were initially available on the AMD-750 platform.

We doubt this will be the case for Thunderbird. Looking back on the Athlon launched last summer, many were uncertain how successful AMD would manage the supply of its flagship processor. In the past, AMD has run into untimely manufacturing troubles the moment demand picks up for their product of the moment. Couple this was the Athlon's dramatically new infrastructure and it becomes pretty obvious why many were skeptical of AMD's opportunity for success with the Athlon processor.

When AMD proved its skeptics wrong, the number of Athlon partners blossomed, motherboard manufacturers and OEM's quickly announced products based on the processor.

For proper operation with the new Thunderbird core, AMD recommends a motherboard based on VIA's recently released KT133 chipset. KT133 shares the same basic feature set of the KX133 chipset, but is designed to operate with the new socket interface present with Thunderbird and AMD's upcoming Duron processor. KX133 on the other hand was designed for Slot A operation.