Not showing too great a concern for the fact that it won't bring about any great breakthrough during the next year, AMD revealed some of the releases already planned for 2011. What AMD introduced were its two latest CPU architectures, the Bulldozer and the Bobcat, each aimed at a specific segment of the IT market.

Each type of architecture is especially designed to efficiently perform their intended duties without putting in any extra resources, which, although interesting, would be pretty much useless in actual PC configurations. Although both will use the 32nm SOI technology, one architecture will be processing power-oriented (Bulldozer) with the other focused on low electricity consumption (Bobcat).

As opposed to the performance-focused Bulldozer, the Bobcat will be largely concerned with low power usage, making it a good option for portable PC configurations. It will take the form of central processors with reasonably good performance (reaching about 90% of the performance of current mainstream CPUs), but that will go under the 1W power usage limit. With these features, it is intended to be a challenging competitor to Intel's Atom units. The first processor based on the Bobcat will be dubbed Ontario and will be using a 32nm SOI circuitry in its design, two CPU cores and one DirectX integrated GPU core.

On the other side of the fence, the Bulldozer will be created as a power-packed machine capable of carrying out even the most intensive computing tasks of advanced desktop PCs and servers. It has shared Level 2 and 3 cache memory, and integrates two integer array. Not only will it support AMD SSE5, but it will also include a technology like that of HyperThreading. The Bulldozer will be showcased in 2011 as part of the Zambesi Desktop CPU (which will feature 4/8 cores manufactured on 32nm) and the Interlagos server processing unit, which will have up to 16 cores.

Although Intel may see itself in a good position considering that no great releases will be made by AMD during 2010, it is possible that the latter will quickly overcome any marketing share loss with these technologies, if backed up by a good marketing plan. All that remains to be done is wait for the actual debut of these devices. Nevertheless, 2011 is still far away, so AMD has plenty of time to surprise us with a stunning move of its own.