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Long, long ago (about a year) in a galaxy far, far away (actually in a building about ten miles from the Sharky lab), there was a perceived x86 CPU monopoly by a powerful corporation named Intel. While some competition did come from companies with names like Cyrix and WinChip, Intel defeated those competitors with superior products and the marketing might of little dancing men in shiny contamination suits. "Intel Inside" was their battle cry and none could match their overwhelming market share.

And then Advanced Micro Devices came along and laid the smack down upon Intel, bringing unprecedented levels of competition and innovation that peaked with early introductions of the 1GHz Athlon and the 1GHz Pentium III. As these two battle it out for OEM contracts and consumer mindshare, we have watched in fascination and excitement, wondering how this megahertz war will end. Upping the stakes, AMD continues the fight with the release of their Duron processor, the new competitor to Intel's Celeron.

AMD has pointed out to us that the name Duron has roots in the Latin words "durare," meaning "to last," and "-on" meaning "unit." So to paraphrase, Duron means "lasting unit." Can somebody say Viagra?