AMD's Duron Reaches The Giga Hertz Barrier

Pricing

AMD dropped the prices again, as you can see in the following chart.

Summary

AMD ensured a prolonged life span for its value processor Duron with new 'Morgan'-core. The performance difference to Duron 950 is large enough to justify the existence of Duron 1 GHz and the pricing will ensure the success of the first low-cost Giga Hertz processor. The majority of PC users should be very well satisfied with the performance offered by Duron 1 GHz, because its major performance lack lies in office software, which is anyway not restricted by processor performance, but by user input.

Now OEMs can market their low-cost Duron-boxes with the words 'Giga Hertz', which should ensure their success especially in markets where people aren't particularly informed. AMD will have to live with the fact that a Duron that can boast "Giga" might impact the sales of the flagship processor Athlon. However, now that times are rough in the PC-business, it's better to sell a lot of value products than no products at all.