Analysts were less receptive, noting that a faster Morgan chip for value-class notebooks is expected within six months and the new Durons also lacks the power-saving features of the last-generation K6-2. However, at 600 and 700 MHz, they match the highest speeds of Celeron chips from rival Intel Corp. Also, they are being offered at $123 and $75 -- significantly less than the $181 it costs for the 700-MHz mobile Celeron.

"We want to pick up where the K6-2 left off," said a spokesman for AMD in Austin, Texas. "It clearly outperforms the Celeron and is competitive with the Pentium III."

"It's about time," said Matt Sargent, an analyst at ARS, of the new Durons, which he called placeholders.

According to Sargent, the mobile K6-2's market share stands at about 20 percent, a victim of AMD's inability to update the part with a next-generation design or clock speeds higher than 550 MHz. AMD's pitch to remake the similar K6-III as a notebook chip met with a lackluster response, as it failed to break the 500-MHz barrier, analysts said.

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. began talking about the mobile Duron in mid-2000, then pushed back plans for the chip until the fourth quarter of the year, Sargent said. But analysts said the real problem is the chip lacks the PowerNow features that made the K6-2 so popular, and are also expected on the forthcoming Morgan chip.

AMD has done "literally nothing" to lower the processor's power, save for decreasing the voltage, to 1.4 volts from the desktop version's 1.6 volts, said Nathan Brookwood, an analyst at Insight64, Saratoga, Calif.

The AMD spokesman declined to comment on the chip's power consumption, except that it "operates within the limits of today's mainstream notebook designs."

Morgan, based on an updated Athlon core, is officially expected within the first half of 2001 -- leaving little time for the mobile Duron to become established.

"Most people are going to wait for the Morgan," Brookwood, said. "But from an opportunistic standpoint, it was a good move for them. It helps AMD establish its seventh generation in the mobile space."

Only a single OEM backed the Duron launch, although AMD plans to announce more design wins overthe course of the year, the spokesman said. NEC Electronics Inc.'s Japanese PC subsidiary will introduce three models of its LaVie U notebook series using the 700-MHz Duron. However, a representative for NECComputers, Sacramento, Calif., said a complementary NEC Versa isn't planned for the North American market.

"We don't have any plans currently," she said. "But we always keep our options open and evaluate new technologies."

The notebook market has historically been problematic for AMD. When the mobile K6 first debuted in January 1998, AMD's limited chip output was restricted to just IBM Corp. and Compaq Computer Corp. But the next-generation mobile K6-2 was wholeheartedly adopted by OEMs and consumers, pushing AMD's U.S. retail notebook market share to between 70 and 80 percent in early 2000, according to ARS, La Jolla, Calif.