After having heard recently that AMD would drop the good ole' "Athlon" brand for "Phenom" with their next-gen K10 chips due out in the second half of this year, AMD have issued out a press release today confirming the change, also throwing in a bunch of details about the upcoming stars family of quad-core processors and other tidbits.

It is made clear that the highest-end model CPUs will retain the FX tag as the "Phenom FX", followed by standard quad-core flavours which will be stamped the "Phenom X4" whilst lower-end dual-core models will carry the "Phenom X2" branding.

Athlon and Sempron chips will still co-exist (at least for a while) to cater towards entry-level and value conscious buyers.

For full details check out AMD's all-official here, with more info over at the Dailytech.

Delivering a four-core foreshadowing of innovations to come for PC enthusiasts worldwide, AMD today unveiled the upcoming AMD Phenom processor family name and publicly demonstrated the first all-AMD enthusiast platform, codenamed "FASN8." The industry's only true quad-core client processors are expected to deliver the ultimate visual experience, especially when paired with AMD's new DirectX 10 ATI Radeon HD 2000 series, which began shipping today. AMD expects true quad-core and dual-core AMD Phenom-based desktop systems will ship in the second half of 2007.

In a demonstration in San Francisco, AMD previewed an eight-core platform, codenamed "FASN8," pronounced "fascinate," to show the first AMD silicon-based next-generation eight-core platform. The demonstration platform includes two true quad-core AMD Phenom processors, the new DirectX 10 ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT, as well as an upcoming AMD next-generation, high-performance chipset, due in the second half of 2007. This platform illustrates AMD's leadership in developing a single solution with increased levels of integration to boost real-world performance.