AMD's Bulldozer CPU Pushed to 2011

Advanced Micro Devices is reported to have announced yesterday that its plans for the launch of the new micro-architecture known as Bulldozer had been reset, and that the next-generation processors would not emerge until 2011. This statement somehow comes to contradict the company's chief executive officer’s saying that the 32nm node production would be ramped up in the middle of next year.

Dirk Meyer, CEO and president of AMD, stated in a recent interview that the company was moving fast in the 32nm technology area. He also announced last year that the first samples of Bulldozer would be made under the 45nm fabrication process and that they should surface this year. The Bulldozer processors were expected to come earlier on the market, yet it seems that this won't happen too soon.

“Our guidance for the Bulldozer CPU core was reset to expect test silicon in late 2010 and product in 2011,” said Damon Muzny, a spokesperson for AMD, as reported by X-bit labs.

The first Bulldozer processor, codenamed Orochi, should come with more than four cores and more than 8MB of cache, while also supporting DDR3 memory. The chip manufactured under the 32nm process node should come in 2011. Along with it, the company is also expected to release Ontario, with two general-purpose x86 cores, which would also feature integrated graphics, 1MB of cache and DDR3 memory support. This chip would be based on Bobcat, should be very power efficient, and would come as one of the first Fusion processors.

AMD has developed the next-generation Bulldozer micro-architecture and processor design form zero. The architecture is expected to be able to deliver much more performance in comparison with existing chip versions, while also including the SSE5 instruction set.

For what it's worth, the Sunnyvale-based chip maker needs to come up with a new processor architecture, one that would allow it to regain its position on the market in front of rival Intel Corp. The currently available Phenom II/Deneb CPUs still need to prove they are competitive on the market. At the same time, the company should consider going for faster processors in 2010, as the consumer demand is expected to grow, yet AMD seems rather silent in what concerns its future plans.