Yesterday, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) announced the release of its new "Black" Phenom X4 which will be joined by two energy-efficient versions of the Phenom X4 chip.

All three chips present the company’s 65-nm process, with 2 Mega Bytes of shard level 3 cache and a 512 Kilo Bytes of level 2 cache/ core.

The 2.6 Giga Hertz AMD Phenom X4 9950 Black Edition processor targets the sector of power users and also gamers, where performance issues overcome the economy factors. On the other hand, 2.0-GHz AMD Phenom X4 9350e and the 1.8-GHz AMD Phenom X4 9150e processors are meant for the consumers interested in power savings, with a more energy-conscious mentality.

The 9950 processor comes at a price of $235, which is the same as the company’s 9850 model. The 9350 processor costs $195 and the Phenom X4 9150e processor is available for $175.

"These processors, under the most extreme operation, consume no more than 65 watts, delivering the performance of four independent cores at a low wattage," said one of AMD’s officials, as quoted by ComputerWorld. The company explained that its efforts have been focused on offering a small product which will take up little space, with a series of form factors meant to reduce the energy consumption and also do its job without too much noise.

The company is looking to make up for the time lost in 2007, when it had to delay its product releases. The new products introduced on the market join April’s three triple-core Phenom processors and the company’s offer now includes dual core, a triple core and a quad core, with a little something for everyone. The market’s extremely different demands concerning the performances, consumption, price ranges and frequency are now covered by AMD in a rather satisfactory ratio.

The strategy behind AMD’s release is closely connected to the announcement about the upcoming market availability of the new ATI Radeon 4800 series of graphics cards and also AMD’s plans to end its third quarter with a long awaited profitability. Last year was considered a turning point for the company, which led to a brand new marketing strategy.

AMD is looking to step up its efforts, in order to exceed its 13 percent of the market’s share and attempt to get a little closer to Intel’s unmatched 79 percent. Intel is by far the market’s leader, but this does not mean that there isn’t any room left for other companies to register a significant profit. For a better chance at reaching its goals, Advanced Micro Devices recently released its Puma platform for laptops and also lowered its prices to become one of the market’s cheapest producers, while also maintaining its standards for quality and continually developing new ideas.

During this year’s first quarter, AMD registered a raise of 2.2 percent in its share of global microprocessor market revenue, while Intel’s sales dropped with 0.7 percent. The two combine for 92.7 percent of the total microprocessor market and while one is looking to maintain its leading position, the other is looking for a wider recognition of its capacities.