Today, after many quarters of delays AMD will finally launch its first two Phenom CPUs, but only at 2.2 and 2.3GHz speeds. The Phenom will lose the X4 moniker in the name, and the Agena B2 stepping that doesn’t work well at 2.4GHz will finally arrive today. The main focus is the retail market.

AMD doesn’t have a dual core that can compete with Intel's Core 2 Duo, but at least it will have the modestly clocked quad core K10 that will try to fight Intel on the quad core turf. The only chance AMD now has are super low prices.

The Phenom should be available today. and if you buy a thousand you should pay €190 for the Phenom 9600 and €169 for the Phenom 9500.

The Phenom 9700 got canceled due to the errata and won't be launched until late Q1 2008. It is certainly not an Intel killer, but it has an attractive price.