38 MAXIMUMPC FEBRUARY 2007

FX FX

AMD goes on the

FX FX

offensive with its

FX FX

new ultra-enthusiast

FX FX

quad-core platform

FX FX

and promises eight

FX FX

cores by fall 2007

FX FX

Of all the things you can accuse AMD of being,

FX FX

timid isn’t one of them. With its dual-core

FX FX FX CPUs wheezing for air behind Intel’s Core 2

Duo and its competitor to Intel’s quad-core

chip still on the drawing board, AMD is going

for broke with a unique dual-processor plat-

form for consumers.

Dubbed Quad FX, the platform pairs the

newly minted Athlon 64 FX-70 series CPUs

with a designed-for-consumers dual-socket

motherboard. The maneuver is audacious and

represents AMD’s Hail Mary attempt to retain

the ultra-high end of PC computing. No CPU

company has ever pushed dual-processor

systems on consumers, even the ultra-enthu-

siast types who AMD says it’s targeting.

By going the dual-processor route, the

company takes a massive shortcut—getting

four Athlon 64 cores into a PC much sooner

than it would have otherwise. And maybe, just

maybe, the same machine will be able to run

two quad-core chips—or perhaps, something

even crazier—this summer. AMD’s trying to

get its user base fi red up about Athlon CPUs

once again.

Quad

FX

Quad

FX

Files

FX

Files

FX

BY GORDON MAH UNG