"My gut feeling is that Duron is going to be comparable" in performance to a Celeron, Mercury Research's McCarron said.

CNN: AMD's low-cost Duron chip takes aim at Celeron

The Duron also includes a larger on-chip memory cache than the K6-2, and AMD's Enhanced 3DNow instructions, designed to boost multimedia performance.

CNN: AMD's low-cost Duron chip takes aim at Celeron

Later this year or early next year, Acer Laboratories and Silicon Integrated Systems will also launch chipsets that work with Duron, he said.

CNN: AMD's low-cost Duron chip takes aim at Celeron

While Monday marks the official launch of the chip, none of the leading PC makers were ready to offer a Duron system yet.

CNN: AMD's low-cost Duron chip takes aim at Celeron

As with any new processor, one area of concern for AMD will be assuring an adequate supply of chipsets that work with Duron.

CNN: AMD's low-cost Duron chip takes aim at Celeron

Chipsets are collections of chips that surround the main processor in a PC, and a shortage would limit the number of Duron PCs that can be sold.

CNN: AMD's low-cost Duron chip takes aim at Celeron

Duron is AMD's first processor for budget PCs that takes advantage of an advanced chip design, or "microarchitecture, " that was unveiled last year for its higher-performance Athlon processor.

CNN: AMD's low-cost Duron chip takes aim at Celeron

Perhaps most importantly, analysts said, the new architecture should allow AMD to keep boosting the clock speed of Duron to keep pace with -- or even stay ahead of -- Intel's Celeron.

CNN: AMD's low-cost Duron chip takes aim at Celeron

Among them are QBs Nate Montana (son of Joe Montana) and Jordan Rodgers (brother of Aaron Rodgers), Jake Ryan (son of Pat Ryan), Duron Carter (son of Cris Carter), Luke Tasker (son of Steve Tasker), Kyle Long (son of Howie Long, brother of Chris Long) and Baker Steinkuhler (son of Dean Steinkuhler).

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