In August, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) will launch its new 'Barcelona' computer chip, which is set to be up to 70 percent faster than previous chips while using the same amount of power. Industry analysts say 'Barcelona'—to be sold as the Quad-Core Opteron—is part of AMD's strategy to compete with larger rival Intel Corp. The chip is aimed at the servers market, where AMD has fared best against Intel. Barcelona has four processing cores, which give it the ability to handle several tasks at once. AMD says its design, which puts all four cores on a single piece of silicon, gives the chip performance advantages over Intel's quad-core products, which are made by sticking two dual-core chips together. The chip will run at 2.0 gigahertz, and computers featuring the Barcelona are expected to hit the market in September. Pricing details have not yet been released.
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