A bit earlier than expected, Hammer processors are expected to be available in very limited quantities as soon as April.

What a different situation AMD is experiencing from what they used to a few years ago with the original Athlon. If you can recall, they had to wait several months until 3rd party supporting chipsets arrived to the market and even a few more until they got the really good ones, now they are fighting for the top spot, way to go AMD.

Despite the moved-up timetable, motherboard and chipset companies believe that the K7 platform will still dominate the AMD sector in 2003, considering the limited supply of the new processors. According to sources, AMD is expected to start shipping K8 processors on a small scale in March, with total volume estimated at 20,000 units. After launch, the shipments will gradually increase but still reach only 300,000 units for the second quarter.