The overclocking community has come to appreciate AMD's Duron just as much as the performance market has enjoyed the Athlon. It is not uncommon to hear of a 700MHz Duron CPU surpassing the GHz barrier, making it one of the best values for a gamer on a budget. The fact that the Duron has handily beat Intel's Celeron clock for clock makes it that much sweeter.

Unfortunately, Duron owners have been given only one choice for a supporting platform – VIA's KT133 chipset. While it remains to be seen whether or not OEM's will embrace VIA's new KM133 chipset, it cannot be denied that the cost of the performance-oriented KT133 has hurt OEM sales of the Duron. Nevertheless, AMD is determined to see the Duron succeed in all facets of the industry.

Shortly after the Athlon is granted a re-worked core, the Duron line will receive a similar makeover. Codenamed Morgan, this new core will feature the same specifications as the current Duron but with the same power consumption optimizations that we'll see on the Palomino. While AMD initially estimated Morgan to begin shipping at around 800MHz, we think Morgan will make it's way onto the market nearer to 1GHz. By the second half of 2001, AMD expects to be manufacturing a value line ranging from 900MHz-1GHz.

Just as AMD is planning to shrink the Athlon core, the Duron will also be moved to 130nm during the first half of 2002. Again, we do not have any details regarding the new core other than it will consume less power and likely be more scalable. Undoubtedly the marketing guys at AMD have been horsing around– the name for the fifth generation Duron core will be Appaloosa.

If you were to head to your local Best Buy, CompUSA, or Fry's and ask to see their selection of laptops powered by AMD processors, you would be treated to a table full of K6-2 and K6-3-equipped machines. Given that many laptop users nowadays prefer Windows 2000 on the road, the K6 line just doesn't hack it next to a mobile Pentium III system.

Up until now, the Athlon has consumed far too much power and generated far too much heat to be considered as a contender on the mobile market. Using a power-saving technology called PowerNow! (which is expected to extend battery life by 30%), coupled with the power optimizations used on the Palomino, AMD will finally be able to offer a mobile Athlon. Granted, the mobile Palomino will likely be clocked significantly lower than the desktop solution. Also, when Thoroughbred starts shipping in 2002, AMD will be ready with a 130nm mobile version that will obviously run faster, occupy a smaller die and consume less power.

Replacing the K6 line on the value mobile market will be a portable variation of Morgan. Expect these processors to be identical to their desktop counterparts (192KB cache, etc.) other than PowerNow! and a lower operating frequency. Mobile Morgan should begin production in Q2 2001. A mobile version of the Appaloosa core is slated for production in Q2 2002 on a 130nm process.