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AMD Announces New Low-End Processor Line 332

Posted by timothy from the nomenclatura dept.
beaverbrother points out these articles at CoolTechZone and PC Magazine, writing "AMD (Advanced Micro Devices) is slated to launch a new Sempron line of processors this summer, to compete with Intel's Celeron line. The processors are designed to perform basic tasks, such as word processing, and more advanced tasks, like playing video, with ease."
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AMD Announces New Low-End Processor Line More

AMD Announces New Low-End Processor Line

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  • Sempron... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Ianoo ( 711633 ) on Tuesday June 08, 2004 @07:10PM (#9371771) Journal
    The processors are designed to perform basic tasks, such as word processing, and more advanced tasks, like playing video, with ease."
    So... all tasks, with ease?

    • Re:Sempron... (Score:4, Funny)

      by Rodrin ( 729362 ) <chris@[ ]gburn.us ['cog' in gap]> on Tuesday June 08, 2004 @07:11PM (#9371785) Homepage Journal
      Nah, notice how they carefully left p0rn out.

    • Re:Sempron... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by psyco484 ( 555249 ) on Tuesday June 08, 2004 @07:11PM (#9371791)
      All tasks not requiring screaming fast processors. This is not for servers or gamers, it's for the other 75% of the PC market.

      • Re:Sempron... (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Brandybuck ( 704397 )
        Don't you mean "other 95%"? While I don't have any statistics, one out of four PCs being for serving or gaming sounds awfully high. That is unless you consider sharing folders to be serving, and fiddling with solitaire to be gaming. The vast majority of "PCs" are going to be workstations and desktops in business, which won't be servers and game boxes.

      • Re:Sempron... (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Dr. Spork ( 142693 ) on Tuesday June 08, 2004 @11:17PM (#9373708)
        You're right... but by most people's standards, these will be screaming fast processors! My Athlon 2500 is almost a year old and still feels screaming fast to me. It is fast compared to any of the other computers I am around.

        I think it's weird that when a budget processor comes out, people write it off as something that's OK if all you do is email and surf the net. Those very same snobs would be slobbering to have that processor just 18 months earlier. Have their needs really changed that much in those 18 months? Do they resign themselves only to email and web surfing once their computer is 18 months old?

        My point is that this thing will be cheap and screaming fast, and do everything effortlessly except for playing games that don't yet exist. Yet I'm sure that slimy salesmen at CompUSA will say that you shouldn't buy one unless what you do is just email and internet. Bah! I bet you when this comes out, it will be faster than what 90% of CompUSA employees run at home!

        • Re:Sempron... (Score:3, Insightful)

          by Moraelin ( 679338 )
          "Do they resign themselves only to email and web surfing once their computer is 18 months old?"

          Absolutely not. We buy a new CPU and graphics card long before those 18 months have passed.

          Now if only ATI would get off their asses and actually bring the X800 XT Platinum Edition to the market, I wouldn't have to make do with this 7 month old 9800 XT. Lemme tell you, this thing _crawls_ in 1600x1200x32 with 6x FSAA and 16x Aniso in some games. Not "games which don't even exxist", but actual games available her

        • You're wrong. (Score:3, Insightful)

          by Penguinoflight ( 517245 )
          Playing games that don't exist is not the only problem for a budget system. In addition to these processors being slated as "budget", the manufacturers will add junk to either use outdated, or unreliable, or undated and unreliable for video (I still remember the awe when I saw brand new top of the line P4's with that cheap stuff). Put that together with a standard 48x cdrw and you have a system that is totally void of anything worthwhile.

          This is not to diss AMD, I'm sure the Sempron will kill the celeron

      • Re:Sempron... (Score:3, Insightful)

        by pknoll ( 215959 )
        Very true, but consider - the CPU spec depends on what your servers are doing. I have one that runs my firewall; it's a K6 266. Another runs DNS/DHCP and et cetera for my local LAN; it's a P-III 500, and that's likely overkill in both cases.

        Not all servers need screaming fast processors, either. So, AMD's market could be even larger than just -gamer.

        • Re:Sempron... (Score:3, Informative)

          by pe1rxq ( 141710 )
          Likely overkill?
          Unless you have a gigabit pipe thats a lot of overkill.
          Both tasks could easily be done by a single 486.
          I have a 200Mhz pentium at my house doing the same and act as a fileserver too. The only reason its that fast is that I didn't have anything slower with an usb port (for the wlan interface)

          Jeroen

      • Re:Sempron... (Score:3, Insightful)

        by ivan256 ( 17499 ) *
        Whoever convinced people that being a "server" meant that it needed to be big, fast, and expensive was a marketing genius. In reality though, most servers don't need to be big, fast, or expensive. Sure, there are people with multi-terabyte databases with thousands of users, or file servers for 10,000 employee companies, but for every one of those there are 100 machines that serve a low traffic website, or handle e-mail for less than 1000 people. Why run an 80 watt $600 processor at 90% idle for those tasks?

    • Re:Sempron... (Score:3, Funny)

      by ExTycho ( 218077 )
      or you could just use a old duron 1.3ghz and save yourself 100, for those extremely processor intensive word documents!

      • Re:Sempron... (Score:3, Insightful)

        by nolife ( 233813 )
        Modded as funny but I have two computers with 1.4 Durons from Walmart ($199 a piece) and they work great. Mandrake and W2K. Both play full screen dixv and xvid videos with no problems and the gaming is not too bad (thats what the consoles and MY computer are for).

    • I think what it implies is: (Score:5, Insightful)

      by reality-bytes ( 119275 ) on Tuesday June 08, 2004 @07:14PM (#9371819) Homepage
      What they're getting at is that its designed for basic functionality like your word-process and your basic video decoding.

      What this processor is probably not aimed at is high end video encoding/transcoding - 3D (openGL or DirectX) gaming or high-load server processing.

      • Re:I think what it implies is: (Score:4, Interesting)

        by vivek7006 ( 585218 ) on Tuesday June 08, 2004 @07:42PM (#9372088) Homepage
        I do video encoding using Duron 1.3 Ghz. I can rip and encode a whole DVD movie in about 4-6 Hrs. These new processors will be definetely faster than a Duron 1.3Ghz, which IMHO is fast enuf.

    • Re:Sempron... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Dzimas ( 547818 ) on Tuesday June 08, 2004 @07:14PM (#9371824)
      Unfortunately, it seems that consumers are only able to keep track of one or two processor family names per manufacturer. Intel: Pentium/Celeron, Apple/Motorola: G4/G5, AMD: Athlon/Duron. Though the marketing people try hard, the Centrinos and Semperons are destined to become forgotten, no matter what their architectural/price advantages.

      • Re:Sempron... (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Fweeky ( 41046 )

        it seems that consumers are only able to keep track of one or two processor family names per manufacturer.

        I suspect most consumers really don't have a clue about processor names, and will just go for whatever a salesperson points in their direction. Any ideas as to performance probably comes more from noticing the general naffness of a name than any actual understanding. Really, which would you rather have in the absence of any other knowledge, an Athlon or a Sempron? That, of course, is precisely why lo

      • Re:Sempron... (Score:4, Funny)

        by NetGyver ( 201322 ) on Tuesday June 08, 2004 @09:16PM (#9372891) Journal
        It wouldn't be so damn bad if the new chip name had a ring to it.

        Take "Athlon" for example: The "Ath" part of the name reminds me of Athens, Greece. You know, home of the Roman empire, which was a powerful force in it's day. The "ion" part of it reminds me of the word "marathon" which says to me it can keep going and going. Kind of a powerful runner if you will...

        Now take "Duron", the "Dur" part reminds me of "endurance" whicn means it's not running for speed, it's an endurance runner. The "on" part still reminds me of marathons.

        These to me, seem like very fitting names. However, I'm not sure what to think of Sempron. Excluding the obvious porn reference, it does remind me of the Sampo Virus. [f-secure.com]though.

      • Re:Sempron... (Score:3, Informative)

        by beeblebrox87 ( 234597 )
        Duron is being phased out, to be replaced by Sempron. AMD will thus still only have two consumer CPU names, Athlon64/Sempron.

  • Yes but... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Mr. Sketch ( 111112 ) * <<moc.liamg> <ta> <hcteks.retsim>> on Tuesday June 08, 2004 @07:10PM (#9371779)
    Will they overhead and melt down like the Celeron processors? Without this feature I doubt they will be able to effectively compete with the Celeron.
    • If you meant over[b]heat[/b], then In a word, yes. I tried some last week, and they were absolutely abominable. All of mine were put to use integrating a Dirac pulse that was picked up by my satellite dish. Almost immediately they overheated, all the capacitors exploded and a diode changed direction and everything.

  • are these really cheaper to produce? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Moonpie Madness ( 764217 ) on Tuesday June 08, 2004 @07:11PM (#9371781)
    or are they just filling in a perceived niche? id buy these for sure if they are really cheaper than older durons are (really cheap)...

  • Duron? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 08, 2004 @07:11PM (#9371782)
    So it's like a Duron, but with an even sillier name?

    • Simpleton (Score:5, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 08, 2004 @08:57PM (#9372757)
      AMD announces the Simpleton processor line. Designed to be a replacment for the older Moron line, the Simpleton features 4 more letters in its name. The new line is designed to compete with the current Intel Cheaparon line.

  • soundalike (Score:5, Interesting)

    by 7Ghent ( 115876 ) on Tuesday June 08, 2004 @07:11PM (#9371788) Homepage
    So, the marketing strategy is that the new chip name sounds so similar that people will get confused and buy a Sempron when they meant to buy a Celeron?

    Well, at least it sounds less like vegetable.

  • so... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by gl4ss ( 559668 ) on Tuesday June 08, 2004 @07:11PM (#9371789) Homepage Journal
    Big numbers on box with little actual performance, for people who want big numbers but don't really need a powerful computer(or have a clue, of course, if you're without a clue you don't really need a powerful computer so..)...

    if it's a celeron competitor that is..

    hopefully it'll be at least very affordable..

  • Whats with the -ron? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by KRYnosemg33 ( 709857 ) on Tuesday June 08, 2004 @07:12PM (#9371796)
    Celeron, Duron, and now Sempron Am I missing something?

    • Re:Whats with the -ron? (Score:4, Funny)

      by erucsbo ( 627371 ) on Tuesday June 08, 2004 @07:19PM (#9371867)
      Hidden performance problems that surface later - like Enron?, or is it just that when the heavy calculations need to be done, the high end chips will say "see you later on" while these low end ones stagger on.
    • Sauron would work well.

      I want a Sauron processor.

    • Re:Whats with the -ron? (Score:5, Funny)

      by kfg ( 145172 ) on Tuesday June 08, 2004 @07:46PM (#9372123)
      New from K-Tel! The Dadooron cpu.

      Brought it home on Monday and my heart stood still.
      Dadooron ron ron, Dadooron ron.
      Loaded up this OS from a guy named Bill.
      Dadooron ron ron, Dadooron ron.
      Whoa, my heart stood still.
      Yeah, an OS from Bill.
      And then I booted up my,
      Dadooron ron ron, Dadooron ron.

      They knew what they were doin' when they caught my eye.
      Dadooron ron ron, Dadooron ron.
      A really nifty box and lots of pie in the sky.
      Dadooron ron ron, Dadooron ron
      Yeah, they caught my eye,
      With all that pie in the sky.
      And when I booted up my,
      Dadooron ron ron, Dadooron ron.

      But wait! Don't order yet. Call before midnight tonight and get a Moron XML4000 Ultra Plus with bluing for extra whiteness at no extra cost!

      KFG

    • Re:Whats with the -ron? (Score:5, Funny)

      by VistaBoy ( 570995 ) on Tuesday June 08, 2004 @07:55PM (#9372198)
      Well, if you translated Athlon from English to Japanese to English, you might get Athron...

  • Bad name (Score:5, Funny)

    by ebcdic ( 39948 ) on Tuesday June 08, 2004 @07:12PM (#9371805)
    I feel sure this will immediately be spelt "sempr0n".

  • Sempron... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 08, 2004 @07:12PM (#9371807)
    Hm.Sempr0n.

    Sounds like something having to do with Marine porn.

  • Whats up with these names?? (Score:5, Funny)

    by jamesdood ( 468240 ) on Tuesday June 08, 2004 @07:13PM (#9371814)
    I mean Sempron? Opteron, Xeon, maybe I would by a new processor when they come out with the Orgasmatron!

  • You've gotta admit (Score:5, Insightful)

    by slycer9 ( 264565 ) on Tuesday June 08, 2004 @07:16PM (#9371844) Journal
    That as much as we like to rip on 'choked' CPU's, Joe 6Pack doesn't NEED 1/2 the processing power that most of US use in our routers!

    Jesus Christ, my router/firewall alone is a 333PII, which, for the average luser is WAY more than enough.

    That said, I'm all for a new low-end CPU from AMD, let's me keep my overhead low and profits high. Good stuff, have some.

    • Re:You've gotta admit (Score:5, Funny)

      by RobinH ( 124750 ) on Tuesday June 08, 2004 @07:24PM (#9371923) Homepage
      my router/firewall alone is a 333PII, which, for the average luser is WAY more than enough.

      Well, a 333 P2 would choke on just half of the spyware that's installed on Joe 6 Pack's computer, so I doubt he'd be happy with the performance.

    • Re:You've gotta admit (Score:5, Insightful)

      by WIAKywbfatw ( 307557 ) on Tuesday June 08, 2004 @07:31PM (#9371970) Journal
      The average "luser", as you like to refer to the overwhelming majority of PC users, wants to run an OS that they are familiar with and that's current. I'd like to see you run something more powerful/recent than, say, Windows 98 on a 333MHz Pentium II and see how much time you'd waste just looking at the hourglass.

      Oh, and newsflash for you: Joe Sixpack wants to do more on his PC nowadays than just word process and play solitaire.
      • If you're waiting to see ME run something from the Windows line of software, you're in for a LONG wait.

        Granted WindowsXP won't run on a PII, or even on a PIII when you get right down to it. The conversation wasn't about how much processing power J6P needs to run the latest version of Windows, but how much power he needs to do what he wants.

        Which is download Pr0n, check e-mail & play Solitaire.
        Just because you perform tasks 1-3 on a WindowsXP box with 2GB RAM/250GB HD doesn't make you any more 1337, i

      • Re:You've gotta admit (Score:4, Funny)

        by PedanticSpellingTrol ( 746300 ) on Tuesday June 08, 2004 @08:58PM (#9372768)
        I'm running XP Home on a K6-300 with - are you ready for this? 96 MB of ram. Yeah. I hate my life.
        • on a 533 MHz celeron and 128MB of RAM, and a laptop hard drive.

          The scary thing is, it's the one of the most responsive windows machine I have.

          Just goes to show you: Server 2003, it's XP, except it doesn't suck!

  • Why this new line? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by fembots ( 753724 ) on Tuesday June 08, 2004 @07:16PM (#9371851) Homepage
    The article says it's a 32-bit replacemnent for Duron to compete with Intel's Celeron at around 2.8GHz.

    So why don't they just lower Athlon's price enough to compete with Celeron? Or is this Sempron simply a rebranded Athlon, while Duron is a crippled Ahtlon?

    At first I thought AMD is introducing a dumped down 64-bit Athlon, that might be something, as the price of Athlon64 is still too expensive.

  • I don't get this (Score:5, Insightful)

    by batkid ( 448363 ) on Tuesday June 08, 2004 @07:16PM (#9371855)
    The Athlon XP line is actually very competitively priced against the celeron. For example the XP2500+ is $125.00 Canadian compared to the Celeron 2.6Ghz which is $120.00 Canadian. The only difference between the XP and the Celeron is that the XP is WAY faster in many areas (e.g. gaming). So is this new budget line going to decrease performance in order to "compete" with the celeron?

  • Simpron (Score:2, Funny)

    by hirschma ( 187820 )
    AMD is just asking for abuse. See here. [reference.com]


  • From PC Magazine's article :

    Basic computing is no longer just about e-mail, Web browsing or word processing. Today, it's also about downloading and playing music, as well as sending pictures to family and friends


    Yes !! Finally, they've created a processor optimized to downloading music. With Sempron, you can download MP3s 10x faster than using Celeron!

    Intel, eat my pants.

    Now I remember why I cancelled my subscription to PC Magazine years ago....

    • This statement does not come from the PC Magazine. It is the original statement which you can also find in the press release from AMD...

      In fact you can simply find the real aim of AMD. They do not want to bring a new highend processor but an well performing "everybody" or "always computing" CPU.

      And finally... It is clear, that AMD offers its low cost users much more performance than intel does with its silly celeron line...

  • Ob. Monty Python... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Mister Transistor ( 259842 ) on Tuesday June 08, 2004 @07:20PM (#9371880) Journal
    AMD annnounced today the new line of Semprini proc...

    (sounds of announcer being taken away...)

    Those responsible for this announcement have been sacked.

  • Why did they change the name? People just getting sick of duron? Celeron never changed its name for as long as its been around.

  • Why? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 08, 2004 @07:25PM (#9371926)
    I purchased a boxed XP 2500 w/ motherboard from Fry's this weekend for $69.00. The Athlons are already a better deal than the Celerons.

  • Don't forget their next processor line... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Dr Cool ( 671556 ) on Tuesday June 08, 2004 @07:26PM (#9371938) Homepage
    And for the energy and utility markets, they're making a new line of processors called the Enron. But I hear their beta version had problems with the floating-point unit... it kept inflating numbers by 20% to 50%.

  • Marketing geniuses... (Score:5, Funny)

    by NoMoreNicksLeft ( 516230 ) <john.oylerNO@SPAMcomcast.net> on Tuesday June 08, 2004 @07:30PM (#9371964) Journal
    They wanted to emphasize that this was "more" than just a celeron, and of course, they had to keep the -on suffix.

    Introducing the AMD Moron....

  • Great for Thin Clients (Score:4, Interesting)

    by privaria ( 583781 ) on Tuesday June 08, 2004 @07:30PM (#9371969) Homepage

    These will probably work fine in thin clients connected to a server running a stable, multitasking, multi-user OS [kernel.org]. Actually, they may even be overkill for that.

    Imagine a tiny motherboard using one of these with a basic amount of soldered-in RAM, on-board video and NIC, and an on-board boot flash containing LTSP [ltsp.org]. Voila, a compact, cheap license-free, diskless, plug-and-play, workstation! How's that for putting Linux on the desktop?

    An open hardware project, anyone?

    • look elsewhere (Score:4, Informative)

      by GunFodder ( 208805 ) on Tuesday June 08, 2004 @08:11PM (#9372380)
      Via already makes a line of small integrated motherboards with most of those requirements, called EPIA. They use their own Eden processor. It's pretty gutless, but it would make a fine file server or I/O device.

    • Ding ding ding! (Score:3, Informative)

      by Ayanami Rei ( 621112 ) *
      You are our new Slashdot champion. Lets' break down your +5 score:

      +1 for mentioning Linux.
      +1 for introducing it in a clever, offhand way (a link to kernel.org which will associate the linking phrase in google, YOU SLY DOG YOU!)
      +1 for advocating a return to client/server computing in some form
      +1 for using "open" and "hardware" in the same sentence.

      Good job! I'd shake your hand if I could reach it.
      Now for the bad news:

      You don't know what the FUCK are you talking about.
      The Sempron is going to be 100% like t

  • Semper... (Score:5, Funny)

    by hpa ( 7948 ) on Tuesday June 08, 2004 @07:32PM (#9371985) Homepage
    The first thing the name "Sempron" reminded of was the fact that Semper is a Swedish brand of baby formula.

  • Not lower, Higher!!! (Score:3, Funny)

    by elasticwings ( 758452 ) on Tuesday June 08, 2004 @07:36PM (#9372023)
    Argh, stop making lower processors!!! Make new higher ones. I don't want to be able to afford a new cpu. I want to dream about new fast ones that cost more than I have. :P

  • AMD what? (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 08, 2004 @07:38PM (#9372046)
    AMD Spermon?
    AMD Sempr0n?

    I'd like to applaud the marketing people at AMD for showing that even though you are severely retarded, you can still come up with a name for a a discount CPU.

    And cheers to AMD for having such enlightened hiring practices! Most companies reserve the mentally deficient [kuro5hin.org] for IT jobs.

    • Re:AMD what? (Score:3, Funny)

      by Merovign ( 557032 )
      On-topic: What is it with the stupid names! Always with the stupid names! Sempron! Opteron! VW Touareg! An economy station wagon called Matrix! Nasal CROM! Semprini! I know it's hard to find names, but criminy!

      Off-topic: If there were a real-life meeting of Kuro5hin.org posters, I would want to know so I could be somewhere else. In comparison, /. is a bastion of fraternal love and kindness. Even on bad days.
  • Semproni?!

    OUT!

  • And what about the Moron processor? (Score:3, Funny)

    by gatesh8r ( 182908 ) on Tuesday June 08, 2004 @07:44PM (#9372108)
    Gotta have More Power! [bbspot.com]

  • Simperon? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Bodhammer ( 559311 ) on Tuesday June 08, 2004 @08:13PM (#9372397)
    simper [reference.com]

    \Sim"per\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Simpered; p. pr. & vb. n. Simpering.] [Cf. Norw. semper fine, smart, dial. Dan. semper, simper, affected, coy, prudish, OSw. semper one who affectedly refrains from eating, Sw. sipp finical, prim, LG. sipp.] 1. To smile in a silly, affected, or conceited manner.

  • No computers. (Score:4, Funny)

    by IGnatius T Foobar ( 4328 ) on Tuesday June 08, 2004 @08:24PM (#9372498) Homepage Journal
    Low end processors, old processors, crap processors ... the problem is that people still have full-blown computers on their desks. Maybe if you're Joe Seven-Pak (you know, Joe Six-Pak's poweruser cousin) and you edit your home videos on your PC, it makes sense to have the latest and greatest. But I find it completely stupid -- actually, I find it downright obscene -- that businesses with bloody acres full of cubicle dwellers, have not embraced network computing solutions like LTSP [ltsp.org] or even Citrix. If it weren't for the damned status quo being continously hammered into people's minds by Intel and Microsoft, maybe people would realize that keeping power off the desktop and centralized behind the glass is the best way to lower the TCO of a multiuser environment.

  • Combine a Duron with Centrino (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Lord Kano ( 13027 ) on Tuesday June 08, 2004 @08:27PM (#9372528) Homepage Journal
    Seems to me that AMD is trying to cash in on the buzz surrounding the Centrino marketing push that Intel is making.

    I can't say I blame them. It's a good idea. AMD has always been a good "budget" performer. Intel may be king of the hill in raw processing power, but in the price/performance battle it's AMD all the way.

    Some might label me as an AMD fanboy because I haven't bought an Intel chip since the P2-300 and because I have sworn off Intel because of the P3's processor ID fiasco. That's fine with me.

    Spend more on Intel than I do on AMD and you'll get a 10% performance bonus at the cost of a 25% price premium.

    LK

  • Ok, yeah (Score:3, Interesting)

    by cr@ckwhore ( 165454 ) on Tuesday June 08, 2004 @09:07PM (#9372837) Homepage
    The processors are designed to perform basic tasks, such as word processing...

    That's officially the dumbest thing I've ever heard.

  • name.... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Lehk228 ( 705449 ) on Tuesday June 08, 2004 @09:23PM (#9372940) Journal
    the first thing i saw in the name was Sem pron , so is it optomized for jpeg, and movie decoding or something?

  • after a quick search... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Nyder ( 754090 ) on Tuesday June 08, 2004 @10:02PM (#9373237) Journal
    after a quick search I realised the 2 most stupid things that usally gets asked didn't.

    "Can it run linux?"

    "Can you imagine a beowolf cluster of these?"

    thanks

    um, hey, look, the only reason I post stupid stuff like these is because I can't find a job.
    So check my blog if you'd like to help...

    http://nyder.blogspot.com

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