The wait for a 1 GHz value processor is finally over! While the popular Athlon vs. Pentium 4 battle continues to occupy center stage, AMD has switched gears somewhat and released a new Duron. Instead of following up the debut of the Athlon 4 with a desktop version, the new Duron 1 GHz looks to solidify the price-performance lead AMD currently enjoys at the entry-level end. Although high-performance CPUs get the majority of the press, the entry-level sector is a very important one and makes up a noticeable percentage of the overall PC market.

Although we have been treated to consistent speed upgrades in the Duron line, the new 1 GHz model is a bit more than just another notch on AMD's speed belt. The Duron 1 GHz represents the first major core enhancement to this processor line, and there's no way AMD is getting away with calling this one a Duron 4! This new processor is built on the Morgan core, and is set to replace the existing Spitfire core found in current Duron processors. While far from a major design shift, this new core does bring some interesting improvements to the table and once again places Intel on the defensive in the value processor competition.

One of the most important considerations to this release is that the AMD Duron already holds the undisputed price-performance crown. AMD could have sat back and had its Duron 950 compete against the Celeron 850 and 900 and continued to enjoy both a lower price point and higher relative performance. For those on a budget, AMD thankfully continues to push their Duron line even further and this new 1 GHz model has even more power and features than the ones that came before. As AMD moves beyond 1 GHz, this does tend to blur the lines between what is entry-level and what is high-performance, and looks to offer a viable alternative to the more expensive higher-speed CPUs.