Chipmaker AMD last week issued mobile versions of its 64bit Athlon 64 processor, and announced a faster version of its desktop Athlon 64.

As a result the first 64bit laptops running Windows applications should appear soon, though Microsoft has yet to ship a version of Windows that would make full use of AMD's technology.

AMD's Mobile Athlon 64 3200+, 3000+ and 2800+ processors, available now, are described by the firm as the world's only Windows-compatible 64bit chips for mainstream laptops. Like last year's desktop Athlon 64 and the Opteron processors for workstation and servers, the new mobile chips can run current versions of Windows, and will also be able to run today's applications under a future 64bit version of Windows for AMD chips.

"We're leading the industry toward pervasive 64bit computing with the launch of the new Mobile AMD Athlon 64 processors, enabling the industry's first 64bit-capable notebook computers," said Marty Seyer, vice president of AMD's Microprocessor Business Unit.

The new AMD mobile chips are similar to the desktop Athlon 64, but include the firm's PowerNow power management technology for optimising the battery life of laptops. The Mobile Athlon 64 chips offer slightly lower performance: the top-end Mobile Athlon 64 is rated as a 3200+, despite being clocked at the same 2.2GHz speed as the new Athlon 64 3400+ desktop chip, also announced last week.

AMD's new mobile chips are aimed at desktop replacement laptops rather than those models optimised for a small size or low weight, the firm said.

This means they will be competing with Intel's Mobile Pentium 4 chips, which are currently available at speeds up to 3.2GHz.

An Athlon 64 laptop is set to ship in the US from vendor eMachines later this month, but no models from enterprise vendors have so far been announced.

Before last week's announcement of the Athlon 64 3400+ processor, AMD introduced a budget version of its 64bit desktop chip. The Athlon 64 3000+ is clocked at the same 2GHz frequency as last year's original 3200+ model, but only has 512kB of Level 2 (L2) cache memory, half that of other Athlon 64 chips. The cache boosts performance by speeding access to data in main memory.

Buyers of 64bit AMD-based systems will still have to run a 32bit version of Windows, or use alternatives such as 64bit Linux. While a beta version of Windows for AMD64 has been around in beta form for some time, Microsoft has yet to name a shipping date for the full release.

AMD's Mobile Athlon 64 processors 3200+, 3000+ and 2800+ are priced at $293 (£160), $233 (£130) and $193 (£110) in volume, respectively. The desktop Athlon 64 3400+ costs $417 (£230), while the Athlon 64 3000+ costs $218 (£120).