New AMD Chip To Challenge Pentium II

August 20, 1998 (12:00 AM EDT)

Advanced Micro Devices is expected to announce next week a 350-MHz version of the K6-2 CPU, which the company said it plans to position as an alternative to higher-end Pentium II processors.

AMD officials declined to comment about the upcoming announcement, but acknowledged that the company's road map calls for a K6-2 350-MHz processor to ship this quarter. A 400-MHz chip is scheduled for release in the fourth quarter.

A source familiar with the PC chip market said Sunnyvale, Calif.-based AMD (company profile) will release information about the product on Aug. 26, two days after Intel is slated to announce details of a Celeron CPU with 128 kilobytes of on-chip cache and a 450-MHz Pentium II CPU.

Although the K6 and K6-2 processors are generally used in entry-level PCs, AMD officials said the 350-MHz and 400-MHz CPUs will be aimed at the performance-PC market, competing directly with the Pentium II. K6-2 processors are consistently priced 25 percent lower than corresponding Pentium II chips.

AMD's 350-MHz CPU announcement comes at a time when Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel has acknowledged a shortage of Pentium II 266-MHz and 300-MHz processors.