Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), a key rival to Intel Corp. and a fellow chipmaker, has announced its server and desktop level dual-core microprocessors to its customers today.

Although AMD has delivered its solutions a little later than Intel, the company’s solutions perform better than its rival desktop dual-core CPUs and current generation of server chips. Intel expects to bring its dual-core server chips sometime next year.

Dual-Core microprocessors are essentially two chips stacked on a piece of silicon to increase performance. The desktop variants of dual-core chips are mainly designed to handle multi-tasking at a much smoother level than single-core CPUs.

AMD’s Opteron 800 series are designed for four to eight-way servers and are available currently. The chipmaker’s Opteron 200 series microprocessors for two-way servers are expected to arrive later this year in May.

On the gaming front, the world’s second largest chipmaker has introduced its desktop dual-core CPU as well, codenamed Athlon 64 X2. According to performance analysis done by independent labs such as AnandTech, the performance of the X2 is far superior in many cases than Intel’s similar offerings.

AMD’s OEM partners that include HP, IBM and Sun are ready to offer servers based on dual-core servers immediately. Intel’s key OEM, Dell, however is ready to ship workstations based on Intel’s dual-core chips, instead.

The chipmaker said its customers can buy dual-core servers immediately, but there’s a little wait for those who are interested in workstations. The dual-core workstations are expected to hit retail channels starting this June.

HP, supporting AMD, has recently announced two ProLiant models to its product line. These ProLiant servers are BL45p and DL585 server blades. According to AMD, IBM and Sun should also have products based on the aforementioned chips soon.