by Anton Shilov
02/10/2003 | 02:23 PM
AMD today introduced the new version of its Athlon XP processor: three new CPUs based on the Barton core. Frankly speaking, there is not to talk about the newcomers: there is just one peculiarity the Athlon XP “Barton” processor can boast with: 512KB of L2 cache instead of 256KB L2 cache on the predecessors. All other features, pros and cons also present in Barton chips. The new Athlon XP “Barton” processors are manufactured using 0.13 micron copper process in Fab 30, Dresden, Germany. Presently there is no information about any chips made at UMC in Taiwan.
Systems based on the AMD Athlon XP processor 3000+ are immediately available from NEC-CI in Europe and soon from other computer manufacturers around the globe. Retail chips should come very soon as well.<%BANNER[article]%>
At the moment official CPU pricing from Intel and AMD looks as follows:
| Intel Pentium 4 vs Athlon XP vs Intel Celeron Current Official Pricing | |||||
| Intel CPU Model | Price | AMD CPU Model | Price | ||
| Pentium 4 3.06GHz | $637 | Athlon XP 3000+ (Barton) | $588 | ||
| Pentium 4 2.80GHz | $401 | Athlon XP 2800+ (Barton/Thoroughred) | $375 | ||
| Pentium 4 2.66GHz | $305 | Athlon XP 2700+ | $349 | ||
| Pentium 4 2.60GHz | $305 | Athlon XP 2600+ | $297 | ||
| Pentium 4 2.53GHz | $243 | - | - | ||
| Pentium 4 2.50GHz | $243 | Athlon XP 2500+ (Barton) | $239 | ||
| Pentium 4 2.40GHz | $193 | Athlon XP 2400+ | $193 | ||
| Pentium 4 2.26GHz | $193 | Athlon XP 2200+ | $157 | ||
| Pentium 4 2.20GHz | $193 | Athlon XP 2200+ | $157 | ||
| Celeron 2.20GHz | $103 | Athlon XP 2200+ | $157 | ||
| Celeron 2.10GHz | $89 | Athlon XP 2100+ | $93 | ||
| Celeron 2.0GHz | $83 | Athlon XP 2000+ | $83 | ||
| - | - | Athlon XP 1900+ | $76 | ||
| Celeron 1.80GHz | $69 | Athlon XP 1800+ | $69 | ||
| Celeron 1.70GHz | $54 | Athlon XP 1700+ | $54 | ||
As it always happens, middle-range and low-end CPUs from AMD can compete against Intel Pentium 4 and Celeron processors quite well both in terms of performance and pricing. As for the higher-end chips, there is no any precise answer what is better at the moment as everything depends on the applications.
To find out more about the performance of AMD Athlon XP processors based on the latest Barton core as well as to learn where 512KB of L2 cache can (and cannot) boost the performance of AMD K7 CPUs, please read our new article: AMD Athlon XP 3000+, 2800+ and 2500+ on Barton Core.