Advanced Micro Devices Inc. will make a quad-core chip for desktop PCs, replacing its venerable Athlon processor with the new "Phenom" design in an attempt to compete better with Intel Corp.

Multimedia developer Jered Cuenco calls it the "gray-box application" phenomenon: A Web developer, befuddled by a graphic designer's computer-drawn mock-ups, delivers a prototype full of generic gray buttons, plain white backgrounds, oversized headlines and other crimes against visually interesting user interfaces.