Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD.N) on Wednesday unveiled new microprocessors for the desktop personal computer market, in a move that could sharpen its competitive edge against rival Intel Corp (INTC.O).
Among the chips in AMD's Phenom family of processors is one that has three cores, or electronics brains, compared with the two or four most generally available. AMD said that its Phenom X3 has as much as a 30 percent performance improvement in some instances compared to a dual-core chip operating at the same frequency.
AMD first disclosed plans to make the Phenom X3 in 2007, saying then that it was able to build a three-core chip because the brains are on the same piece of silicon, rather than two or four cores on different pieces of silicon joined together.
The company had a difficult 2007 as its full-year loss swelled to $3.38 billion from a net loss of $166 million in 2006. Partly to blame was a design problem with its Barcelona server chip that AMD said was key to regaining its competitive edge against Intel.
AMD rolls out new Phenom microprocessors
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