No matter how advanced the technology is, sooner or later it will migrate to mainstream and even entry-level microprocessors. According to a report from an Asian web-site, AMD Sempron processors will acquire second core as early as in the Q3 2007, a year from now.

“AMD’s entry-level processors will all feature dual-core architecture by the third quarter of 2007, when its last single-core CPU – the Athlon 64 – will start to be phased out in the market,” a news-story over DigiTimes web-site claims, citing industry sources.

The dual-core AMD Sempron chips, which are likely to be called Sempron X2, are expected to be produced using 65nm process technology, thus, will not consume a lot of power. Cache sizes and clock-speeds are unclear, however, the chips are to be compatible with socket AM2 and will feature dual-channel PC2-6400 (DDR2 800MHz) memory controller.

Two processing cores allow to execute two threads at the same time, which means that the processors can handle more tasks simultaneously without performance degradation. The first x86 processors with two executing emerged in the Q2 of 2005 from AMD and Intel. But while Intel’s dual-core Intel Pentium D processors have been losing benchmarks to AMD’s Athlon 64 X2 in many applications, they have been much more affordable. Moreover, Intel will lower the price of its Pentium D 805 chip to $93 later this month, which will allow system integrators to use the product in entry-level machines.

The Sunnyvale, California-based AMD is expected to face price pressure from Intel’s Pentium D products and performance pressure from Intel’s Core 2 central processing units (CPUs). In order to maintain its market share, the company may accelerate its roadmap and some processors may emerge earlier than planned.

AMD did not comment on the news-story.