As with the previous AMD Duron 1 GHz release, the 1.1 GHz version utilizes the new Morgan core, which in itself is a slight derivative of the upcoming Athlon Palomino core. Both the Morgan and Palomino do not represent a transition to the 0.13-micron die size, but are highly enhanced versions of the same 0.18-micron process used with the Duron (950 MHz and lower) and current Athlon processors.

The Duron 1.1 GHz features the exact same 128KB L1/64KB L2 cache design as the previous Duron processors. The AMD Athlon also includes a similar 128K of L1 cache, but increases the L2 quite significantly to a full 256K. This helps position the Duron as an entry-level choice and its cache format compares very well to the 32K L1/128K L2 design of the Intel Celeron and the Pentium III's 32K L1/256K L2. The Duron 1.1 GHz also continues on with its standard 200 MHz DDR bus speed, which also helps AMD position the Duron a bit lower on the scale than the Athlon. AMD's EV6 DDR (Double Data Rate) bus transfers data on both the rising and falling edges of the clock, and transforms a 100 or 133 MHz FSB (front-side bus) effectively into a 200 MHz or 266 MHz DDR bus. So far there have been no Duron models that utilize the higher-speed 133/266 MHz bus.

What this ultimately translates into is lower system bandwidth for the Duron when compared to the Athlon. Running on a 200 MHz DDR bus, the Duron has a potential bandwidth of 1.6 GB/sec, which is lower than the 2.1 GB/s of an Athlon 266 MHz DDR processor. While specification comparisons are weighted in favor of the Athlon, the Duron actually spanks both the Intel Pentium III 133 MHz FSB (1.06 GB/s) and Celeron 100 MHz FSB (800 MB/s) in terms of overall system bandwidth.

The other area where change has affected the Duron 1.1 GHz is in regard to core voltage. Instead of the standard Duron voltage of 1.6V, the newer Duron 1 and 1.1 GHz design calls for a higher 1.75V as the default. This places the Duron 1.1 GHz voltage firmly in Athlon country, and also brings with it a few questions and concerns. These will be addressed in-depth a bit later in the review.

When comparing the Duron at up to 950 MHz and the new Duron 1 and 1.1 GHz models, you may be wondering exactly what the differences are. Basically they fall into two main groups, the addition of an improved Data Prefetch function and the improved 3DNow! Professional instruction set, which is now fully SSE-compatible.