AMD Duron 1.3GHz - Mainstream Muscle

Author :Wayne Date : 21st January 2002

3DVelocity would like to thank AMD and especially Theresa Zimmer for their help and courtesy in providing this processor for review.

...Product	AMD Duron 1.3GHz
...Manufacturer	AMD
...Supplier	AMD
...Price	£100 approx

 

 

 

Introduction :

It sure is a great time to be a PC user, prices have never been lower and hardware has never been faster. I'm also damned glad I was around to see the changes because if I'd been trapped on a desert island for the past two years and got back to see some website referring to a 1.3GHz processor as being "value" or "budget", I'd be convinced they'd been smoking a banned substance.

Today AMD hit back at Intel with the introduction of the Duron 1.3GHz. This, as with the 1.0, 1.1 and 1.2 features the Morgan core which brings with it 3DNow! Professional enabling full SSE functionality and a host of other key advances like hardware data pre-fetch.

Physically nothing has changed. The 1.3 still uses the same 22.5 million transistor aluminium process 106mm2 core straight out of AMD’s Fab 25 in Austin, Texas. The unit supplied to us for test was an "AHLCA" stepping. The Duron 1.3 also uses 0.18 micron technology and 100MHz (200MHz internal) front side bus, a feature set we'll be seeing for a while until the switch to 0.13 micron and 133MHz FSB when Appaloosa debuts.

I don't yet have confirmation of prices but it's expected to appear at a similar price point the 1.2 appeared at, so around the £100/$100 mark, or less than third of the initial asking price for the Athlon 1GHz! Oh happy days. You may remember the race to 1GHz, if you're an old timer like me you may even remember the crawl to 100MHz but however you slice it, things are evolving at breakneck pace and it's us, the users, who are reaping the benefits.