In a bid to catch up with Intel’s premier flavours of Pentium M processor, Advanced Micro Devices on Monday added a new Mobile Athlon 64 product for thin and light notebooks into the lineup. The new chip from AMD works at the same core-clock – 2.0GHz – as Intel’s top-of-the-range Intel Pentium M central processing unit.

AMD’s new Low-Power Mobile Athlon 64 processor 3000+ integrates 512KB of L2 cache and operates at 2.0GHz. In contrast, Intel’s Pentium M 2.0GHz chip features 2MB L2 cache while functioning at the same clock-speed. AMD’s new Low-Power Mobile Athlon 64 consumes up to 35W of power, while Intel’s premier mobile product devours up to 21W of energy.

Two serious trumps the AMD Athlon 64 processors have over Intel’s Pentium 4 and Pentium M chips is that they feature 64-bit capability, something that may drive performance of the chips up when there is supporting operating system, along with NX-bit technology that AMD calls Enhanced Virus Protection (EVP), a security feature.

The Mobile AMD Athlon 64 processor 3000+ for thin and light notebooks is the first new processor model manufactured with AMD’s 90nm production process. The novelty is drop-in compatible with existing Socket 754 infrastructure and features such AMD64 typical things like built-in single-channel memory controller and PowerNow! technology.

The Mobile AMD Athlon 64 processor 3000+ for thin and light notebooks is available immediately worldwide, according to AMD’s statement. However, the first notebook based on the chip from a well-known brand, the Ferrari 3400 notebook from Acer, is expected to be available in Europe during September, with worldwide availability to follow in October, AMD said.

The Mobile AMD Athlon 64 processor 3000+ for thin and light notebooks is priced at $241 in 1000 unit quantities. AMD also offers Low-Power Mobile Athlon 64 with 2700+ and 2800+ model numbers.