John Crank, senior branding associate for AMD, pointed out in a CNET news article that AMD is likely going to phase out the Athlon brand name after the Athlon XP 3200+, which is expected to be announced today for immediate availability. Officially the 3200+ will sell for $464 in 1,000-unit quantities. Phase out might begin as early as 2004. The 3200+ performance enhancements likely will represent a final high watermark for the original family of Athlon chips on desktops. Although another chip based on the Athlon design may emerge for notebooks, the company has no other desktop Athlons on its current product calendar, Crank said, unless AMD decides to add chips to the lineup to satisfy customer interest."It may be the last Athlon that we make," he said. "We have no plans to jump to 90-nanometer manufacturing with Athlon XP." The shift to 90-nanometer manufacturing is slated to begin at AMD next year. Instead, the company will concentrate on the Athlon 64, a desktop chip based on a new design that is scheduled to debut in September.