But delivers 3-core energy-efficient CPUs by the end of the year

Jun 11, 2008 13:07 GMT  ·  By

Advanced Micro Devices intends to cancel the introduction of dual-core AMD Phenom processors based on the company's latest generation K10 micro-architecture. The processor lineup in question is manufactured on AMD's current 65nm process technology. But no need to worry yet, as AMD also plans to bring out two energy efficient triple-core Phenom processors in mid-Q3.

AMD's current dual-core lineup is known for offering performance levels lower than Intel's Core 2 Duo CPUs. This is also the reason for which any product release coming from AMD is expected to turn the tide in its favor. So, news about AMD canceling one of its Phenom processors lineup could be considered disturbing, especially since there is no clear indication on why the company came to this decision. One possible explanation might be the fact that AMD is considering reducing its development costs amidst talk of the uncertain profitability of such chips.

According to the HKEPC website, AMD has informed its partners among motherboard manufacturers that it had canceled plans to release dual-core Phenoms based on the K10-micro architecture. Apparently, AMD intends to release Phenoms based on the latest design, that are going to be manufactured using the 45nm process technology. Until this happens, the only thing we can rest assured about is that we'll be seeing a new processor offering from AMD by the end of this year.

The CPUs I'm talking about are said to be built with three cores, will be energy efficient and will come in two models in mid-Q3. Although there's no official word yet on these Phenoms (codenamed Toliman), the website already mentioned somehow managed to get a hold of the specification list for them.

According to the website, the two models are part of the company's Phenom X3 lineup and are dubbed 8450e and 8250e, both of them being built on a 65nm manufacturing technology. They will come with a 65W TDP, 2MB of L3 cache and support for HyperTransport 3.0. The first of the two is clocked at 2.1 GHz, while the other will have a stock frequency of 1.9 GHz. However, folks from the website did not manage to also get details on the price tag of these CPUs.