At a press event today, AMD also announced that it has selected "AMD Opteron" as the brand name for the 64-bit processor line. The high-end server/workstation version of Hammer, code-named Sledgehammer, will take on the new "Opteron" brand name. Meanwhile, the desktop/mobile version of Hammer, code-named Clawhammer, will utilize the company's current processor brand name--Athlon.

In the deal with Microsoft, AMD said that the U.S.-based software giant plans to offer versions of its Windows operating system software for Hammer. Microsoft will also develop future versions of Windows XP for Hammer.

AMD also claims that systems built around the Hammer processor are already running applications, based Microsoft's Windows software.

"We are formalizing our relationship with Microsoft in the 64-bit space," said Dirk Meyer, group vice president of AMD's Computation Products Group, during the press event.

The Sunnyvale-based company has not officially announced Hammer, but it has been rolling out details about the chip for some time. It described the first details about processor line at last year's Microprocessor Forum in October.

AMD said it expects to begin shipping the first version of the Hammer family of central processors at the end of 2002. The Hammer processors will compete against Intel Corp.'s 64-bit microprocessor lineup, most notably the "McKinley" chip, which is a follow-on product to the existing 64-bit Itanium MPU.

AMD has emphasized that Hammer bridges the gap between future 64-bit computing applications and today's 32-bit operation system environments.

In February, the company gave its first public demonstration of Hammer. The 64-bit processors were manufactured with 0.13-micron CMOS technology on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafer substrates, according to AMD.

AMD said Hammer processors will be the company's first x86-compatible MPUs to have a fully integrated double data rate (DDR) memory controller. AMD will also use its HyperTransport I/O technology-based chip set and DDR support to break performance bottlenecks throughout personal computers and other systems (see Feb. 26 story ).