AMD pops out two notebook chips

Advanced Micro Devices released two notebook chips Sunday, building on a recent surge of sales of processors for portables.

The Athlon 64 3400+ is largely aimed at performance users. It runs at 2.2GHz and comes with 1MB of cache. Gamer-PC maker Alienware will insert the chip in a notebook later in the month.

Like other Athlon 64 chips, and Intel's Prescott, the new notebook processor will block many security threats automatically in conjunction with Windows XP Service Pack 2. The delayed SP2 is slated to come out in August. The Athlon 64 3400+ will also run a 64-bit version of Windows, due now at the end of the year.

Meanwhile, the Athlon XP-M 2200+ comes from the company's older line of chips. It runs at 1.6GHz and is built around an older processor core and comes with a 512KB cache. Averatec, a small computer manufacturer, has put the chip into a notebook that can convert into a tablet PC, marking the first time AMD's chips have been used in a tablet.

The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company said last week in its second-quarter earnings call that consumer notebook sales had "increased considerably" during the quarter.

Notebook chips typically sell for more than desktop chips and bring in more profit for manufacturers. Although AMD has managed to gain market share in consumer desktops in recent years, it commands a smaller share of the notebook market and has not been as aggressive as Intel in promoting notebooks or bundling wireless chips with its processors.

The Athlon 64 3400+ sells for $432 in quantities of 1,000, while the Athlon XP-M sells for $97.