Introduction
AMD Sempron 2800+ and 3100+ and Celeron D ReviewCPU manufacturers are always keen to highlight the fastest processors in their respective ranges. Speed sells; it's as simple as that. All too often, press focus is aimed squarely at the very fastest processors from AMD and Intel, respectively. Readers often see benchmark performance from high-cost processors, yet most can't honestly justify spending over £100 on a CPU. The situation is worse if upgrading. Such is the recent path taken by AMD and Intel, one is invariably forced into adopting a new motherboard if upgrading from even an one-year-old platform.
The big bucks, if you think logically, are made from sales of midrange and even budget processors, so getting it right here is vitally important. With respect to Intel, a budget or midrange CPU is usually a castrated version of its current performance model. That's been the fate of the much-maligned Celeron of late. AMD, on the other hand, has been mixing it its midrange with low-end Athlon 64s whilst also continuing with the erstwhile Athlon XP and a select range of Durons.
Both major home CPU players decided it was time to make Joe Public aware of their current midrange offerings. It was, I feel, a much-needed exercise for AMD. Various speed rating, pertaining to both Athlon XPs and Athlon 64s, made immediate processor evaluation a complex task for almost everyone. What AMD's decided to do is rename its budget lineup, which, incidentally, carries both Athlon 64 and Athlon XP derivatives, with another snazzy name. Sempron is that name. It fits in with AMD's slightly boring nomenclature. Sempron encapsulates both Athlon 64 (but with a twist) and a range of Athlon XP Thoroughbreds models.
Intel is rather more straightforward in its distinction between budget and premium processors. Performance-orientated processors, Pentium 4s, run with either the Northwood or Prescott cores and present Celerons, running with a crippled Northwood core, have to make do with, amongst other disabilities, slower bus speeds and lower cache counts.
