HP is offering notebooks based on Athlon XP-M microprocessors in 754-pin packaging from Advanced Micro Devices that are to enter the market only later this year.

HP’s new HP zv5000z and Compaq R3000Z desktop replacement notebooks based on nForce3 Go 150 core-logic and AMD Athlon 64 processors may be equipped with a chip called AMD Athlon XP-M 3000+ that has 256KB of L2 cache and HyperTransport bus if a customer requests.

AMD Athlon XP along with AMD Athlon XP-M processors for Socket 754 infrastructure are expected to be released in the third or the fourth quarter of the year. From micro-architectural standpoint the new Athlon XP chips are generally the same as AMD’s eighth generation processors: the new CPUs have single-channel PC3200 memory controller as well as SSE2 technology in addition to the tangibly more efficient architecture. One thing the new 754-pin Athlon XP chips cannot do is to execute 64-bit applications for x86-64 architecture.

The Athlon XP-M 3000+ central processing unit is clocked at 1.60GHz, a speed bin below that for the Athlon XP-M processor (1.67GHz) and tangibly lower compared to AMD64 products. By naming the processor as “XP 3000” AMD probably wants to emphasize the architectural advantages of the new microprocessor over the previous generation 32-bit CPUs.

Even though the new 32-bit Athlon XP products are not announced, it does not rule out shipments of such SKUs to certain partners. In early December 2003 we reported that AMD supplied HP its Athlon XP 3200+ processors with 333MHz bus and 2.33GHz clock-speed, while the general specifications of this processor include 400MHz bus and 2.20GHz core frequency.

Shipments of HP’s new notebooks will start on the 11^th of March, 2004. Neither AMD, nor HP commented on the story.