14 DAY TRIAL // As if the latest Athlon 64 X2 CPUs weren't energy-efficient enough, AMD plans to release 45-watt versions for these CPUs. One of the reasons behind this move is that AMD intends to reposition the entire Athlon 64 X2 CPU family towards entry level users, immediately after the upcoming Phenom processors are released. In addition, the new energy-efficient lineup of Athlon 64 X2 CPUs won't be figuring any performance rating in the official denomination. Thus, AMD is readying the Athlon 64 X2 BE-2000-series.
AMD claims that it has already begun sampling the upcoming Athlon 64 X2 BE-2000-series and these should remain based on AMD's 65nm Brisbane-core. As far as energy is concerned, the 45-watt TDP ratings will make the Athlon BE-2000-series as efficient as the previous single-core processors.
By launch time, the BE-2000 series will include three CPU models - the BE-2400, BE-2350 and BE-2300. These three new CPUs are clocked at 2.3 GHz, 2.1 GHz and 1.9 GHz, respectively, and, as with other Brisbane-based processors, the AMD Athlon 64 X2 BE-2000-series feature only 2x512KB of L2 cache. Still, these CPUs are compatible with AMD's 2000 MHz HyperTransport and the Virtualization technology.
No certain information about the actual launch date is available for now, but sources close to AMD estimate that the Athlon 64 X2 BE-2300 and BE-2350 could be making it to shelves as soon as June. The more powerful Athlon 64 X2 BE-2400 will arrive some time in August.
Sticking with AMD, we further find out that the company schedules new price cuts for its server chips. AMD makes "a strong value proposition against the competition and these new prices will enable (users) to offer (their) clients AMD based server solutions at competitive prices." This being said, Opteron 100/1000 CPUs are expected to be 10 to 50 per cent cheaper by June 4th