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Advanced Micro Devices has begun shipping commercial versions of its Athlon 64 processors made using a 90-nanometer process, marking another step forward in the company's transition to the more advanced manufacturing technology.

AMD has already shipped 90-nanometer versions of its Mobile Athlon 64 processors, codenamed Oakville, to PC makers.

Systems based on the chips are expected to be available in the coming months, the company says in a statement this week.

It did not provide details of the chips that have been shipped.

Coming Soon?

The company expects to ship desktop versions of the Athlon 64 manufactured using the 90-nanometer process before the end of September, followed by shipments of 90-nanometer Opteron chips before the end of this year, it says.

Current versions of the Athlon 64 and Opteron processors are made using a 130-nanometer process.

This week's announcement keeps AMD on track to ship dual-core processors made using the 90-nanometer process next year and gives the company a boost in production capacity, the statement says.

Improvements in process technology allow chip makers to reduce the size of a chip, thereby increasing the number of chips that can be produced on a single silicon wafer and increasing the total number of chips that they can produce. The adoption of more advanced process technologies can also result in chips that consume less power, run faster, and cost less to manufacture.