AMD Athlon "Thunderbird" 1.2GHz & Duron 800MHz

The 1.2GHz Athlon, just like its 1.1GHz predecessor will be manufactured exclusively in AMD’s Fab30 plant in Dresden.  The only CPUs coming out of the Dresden plant are using Copper interconnects, and as we’ve mentioned before, AMD happens to be using a blue polishing die at their Dresden plant which gives these CPUs a blueish tint to them.

In contrast, the Durons as well as some lower clocked Athlons are still using Aluminum interconnects and are thus manufactured out of AMD’s Fab25 plant in Austin, TX.  Currently these CPUs coming out of Fab25 exhibit a greenish tint to them, once again due to the polisher, however we have seen cases where the tint appeared to be more of a red, as was the case with our Duron 800. AMD has assured us, however, that the Durons are still only being produced at Fab25 in Austin and are thus still using Aluminum interconnects.

For a better illustration of the subtle differences in the die tints, take a look at our brief comparison here.