AMD Drops Prices, Debuts 1.2GHz Processor

In the usual fashion, Advanced Micro Devices has one, debuted a new chip running faster than any of its predecessors (including its competitions) and dropped prices on those predecessors. The 1.2GHz Athlon Thunderbird was officially introduced today, along with its low-end brother the 800MHz Duron.

In the price wars, the 1.1GHz Athlon Dropped from $853 to $460 USD, the 1GHz from $612 to $350 USD, and the 950MHz from $460 to $282 USD. The 1.2GHz screamer will retail for $612 USD, its 800MHz Duron brother retailing for $170 USD.

Consumers can already buy machines with the new speed demons from Gateway, and will soon be able to from Compaq and Hewlett-Packard.

Intel also dropped chip prices this week, but not nearly as dramatically as its rival AMD. More price cuts are in store for the Pentium line later this month.

Read ZDNet for further information.