AMD is rumored to be shipping two members of its four/eight way dual core processor family on April 21st, just in time for the second anniversary of its Opteron launch. According to sources at AMD Taiwan, one of the chips will be a 1.8GHz dual core Opteron. An AMD representative declined to comment on unreleased products.

GeekCoffee will keep an eye on this developing story and keep you up to date!

Intel's first dual-core processor will be available tomorrow, April 18th, according to an Intel spokeswoman. Systems featuring the new chip will be available through vendors such as Dell, Alienware, and a few others.

The first processor, the Pentium Extreme Edition 840, will run each core at 3.2GHz, which is quite a bit lower than the fastest Pentium on the market today, running at 3.73GHz. Each core will have 1MB of L2 cache, and will most likely be priced at $999. Strangely enough, Intel claims to have planned to release the dual-core chip coinciding with the 40th anniversary of Moore's Law, the 19th of April.

AMD is planning to launch a dual-core version of its Opteron server processor on April 21st at an event in New York. AMD has not yet told us the speed of its first dual-core Opteron, but sources speculate that it will be slightly less than the current 2.6GHz used by Opterons. We think that the chip will be launched at between 2.0 and 2.2GHz due to heat and power requirements on a dual-core chip.

GeekCoffee will keep you up to date, as usual, when the two chips are released.

Three days after filing an antitrust complaint against Intel in the United States, AMD is going after Intel's Japanese subsidiary with a similar lawsuit. AMD filed a claim seeking $50 million in damages in the Tokyo High Court and District Court against Intel K.K. for violations of Japan's Anti-Monopoly Act.

The lawsuit claims that Intel had numerous violations of antitrust law involving almost every major PC maker - the accusations say that Intel has been using a complex pattern of bribery and bullying to keep PC makers purchasing a minimal amount of AMD processors. Some of the more potent examples included retaliation against companies introducing AMD-based PCs and boycotting AMD product launches. If Intel's customers did not comply, Intel would cut their marketing payments or chip allocations.

AMD's CEO, Hector Ruiz, said at a news conference earlier this week, "We deserve to have a significantly larger share of the market. The only thing that is keeping us from achieving those numbers is the illegal, monopolistic practices of our competitor."

Intel's CEO Paul Otellini shot back in a prepared statement, "Intel has always respected the laws of the countries in which we operate. Over the years, Intel has been involved in other antitrust suits and faced similar issues. Every one of those matters has been resolved to our satisfaction. We unequivocally disagree with AMD's claims and firmly believe this latest suit will be resolved favorably, like the others."

Expect this to be a long and drawn-out legal battle, but one thing is for sure: AMD is in fighting shape, and doesn't expect to be the underdog any longer.

AMD has just added an entry dual-core model to its lineup in the Athlon 64 X2 3800+ processor. The Athlon 64 X2 3800+ is designed to provide a jumping-in point for the dual-core desktop user without pricing the system out of range. The processor still uses the same 939 pin package as the single-core Athlon 64 processors, so most motherboards only need a BIOS upgrade in order to support the chip. The 3800+ X2 is priced at $354 in quantity, only $25 higher than the single-core Athlon 3800+.

In addition, AMD also cut the prices on several of the other offerings in its processor lineup. The Athlon 64 4000+ dropped 22% to $375, the X2 line received small reductions such as the 4800+ X2 dropping from $1,001 to $902, and the low-end Turion dropped from $525 to $354, a difference of 33%.

AMD and ATI have closed the deal that has been in the rumor mill for weeks now in a transaction that is said to be worth $5.4 billion. AMD's purchase of the graphics leader was announced this morning by AMD CEO Hector Ruiz and ATI CEO Dave Orton.

The deal is subject to ATI shareholder approval and other regulatory approvals, but no problem with the approvals are foreseen. The two companies have compiled a total revenue of $7.3 billion in the past 4 quarters with a workforce of around 15,000 employees.

A day after it announced its merger with graphics company ATI, AMD has held a demo of its 4x4 quad-core platform, hoping to steal some of the thunder away from Intel's Core 2 Duo chip announcement later this week.

At the product's launch, you will be able to use 2 dual-core chips to accomplish the 4 core goal, but the platform will also support forthcoming quad-core chips. Because it has two sockets currently, the 4 cores are supported by 2 memory channels, each supporting up to 2GB.

In what seems to be an effort to close the performance gap between AMDs current 90 nm processors and Intel’s Core 2 CPUs, AMD is set to launch single core 65 nm processors in December according to roadmaps published on German site Planet 3D Now.

When launched in December the 65nm parts, codenamed Brisbane will be limited to the X2 5000+, 4800+, 4400+ and 4000+ which are all rated at 65 watt power envelope. The current Windsor processors like the FX-62 will remain AMDs fastest parts for the beginning of 2007.

The roadmap also shows AMD plans to release three new CPUs in November, the 5400+ at 2.8 GHz with 1MB L2 cache, 5600+ at 2.8 GHz with 2MB L2 cache and the 6000+ at 3.0 GHz and 2MB L2 cache. via