With the Athlon hot off the production lines, Advanced Micro Devices Inc is already preparing its follow-up, the K8. The company has working prototypes of the chip ready now and will be unveiling its new baby at the Microprocessor Forum next month. The first production silicon is expected to be available in the middle of next year, running at 800MHz.

According to reports on the web, AMD will be manufacturing the K8 at its Fab 30 plant in Dresden, Germany in partnership with another company. AMD has not confirmed any Dresden partnership deals but in the past has made positive noises about a link-up with Motorola Inc in the past.