14 DAY TRIAL // Yesterday was a big day for AMD, as the company introduced its newest server processor, Shanghai, and also held a conference with financial analysts at its Sunnyvale campus, during which future CPU plans and roadmap were revealed. As many of you already know, the company has split into two separate entities a few weeks ago, and its primary goal now is to return to profitability.
“We ought to be able to make money, and we can make money,” said the company, pointing out that it had one competitor on the microprocessor market and another in the graphics market, but that would be about it. And, since things look so simple, AMD plans to move the chipsets to 45nm next year, while pushing graphics into 40nm. Moreover, the chipmaker also says that 32nm designs should be ready for production in 2010.
On the server line, which has attracted a lot of attention lately, for 2009, the Sunnyvale company plans a 6-core 45nm Istanbul, which will work on the same sockets as Barcelona/Shanghai do today. 2010 is expected to bring 8-core and 12-core products featuring four DDR3 channels and four Hyper Transport links.
The desktop area will be crowded with new processors in the near future. The Phenom chips will also see transition to 45nm, and they'll come under the name Phenom II. AMD announced that these parts would initially come for the Socket-AM2+ platform, but will then be pushed to Socket-AM3 with DDR3 support. The already spotted Deneb will surface as a Phenom II X4 with 8MB of L3 cache, while the Propos model will feature a 2MB cache. The chips will come with support for DDR2, but will transition to DDR3 in 2010.
AMD plans new chips and platforms for the netbook market
AMD has also outlined all platforms we will see next year. During the fourth quarter of this year, we'll have the Maui platform, HTPC with integrated 3.1 and 7.1 pre-amp or 5.1 amplified audio out, while, in the first quarter of 2009, the Dragon platform for 45nm Phenom II X4 processors should arrive. The Yukon platform is expected to take on the fast growing market of netbooks.
This new platform is due for release in the second half of 2009, along with the Tigris, Kodiak and Pisces, meant for the mainstream notebooks, business desktops and consumer desktops, respectively. In addition to the new platforms, AMD is also readying the release of six new processors, including the Caspian and Conesus, designed for mini-notebooks, ultraportable computer systems and mainstream notebooks, respectively.
According to the company, both of these last two new processors are built on 45nm, and are based on the same architecture as the company's newly introduced Shanghai processor. Details regarding the retail name of the new Caspian and Conesus haven't yet been officially announced, but according to speculations, AMD might integrate them in its Geode family. Nevertheless, this is yet to be confirmed by the chip maker.
As for specifications, as they have been made available on the company's roadmap, the new Conesus is expected to deliver 2 cores with 1MB of cache and support for DDR2 memory. Later, in 2010, AMD is going to unveil the Geneva core, also designed for netbooks or mini-notebooks, providing 2 cores and higher 2MB cache, as well as a DDR3 memory controller.
The company's graphics products will be pushed to a smaller die as well, and both the 55nm chips and the 40nm ones are expected to generate great revenue increases. AMD unveiled plans only for new software and driver updates, and said almost nothing on the graphics lineup. Even so, we know that it has big plans with the release of the Catalyst 8.12, as there will be a GPU-accelerated H.264 transcoder included.
32nm parts will arrive in 1H 2010
According to the company's plans, Llano will be a mainstream 32nm CPU featuring four cores, 4MB of cache, DDR3 memory controllers, as well as on-die GPU. As seen here, the already planned CPU/GPU fusion has been delayed from the original 2009 expected launch. According to AMD, this is because 32nm offers tangible benefits, while 45nm wouldn't. Yet, Intel has announced plans to release a 45nm CPU/GPU package in the second half of the following year.
Besides these new parts for the enthusiast desktop, mainstream notebook and desktop market, AMD also plans to release 32nm parts for the ultraportable and mini-notebook segment. The netbook chips, codenamed Ontario, are said to provide 2 cores, 1MB of cache, DDR3 memory support and an integrated GPU. Mainstream desktop and notebook chips, as well as the ultra-portable processors, are going to come with an accelerated processing unit (APU).
AMD plans to enter 32nm production of “high-performance” processors in the first half of 2010. According to Doug Grose, who will lead the recently founded Foundry Company, AMD should be able to move to 32nm bulk chip production in Q4 2009 / Q1 2010, while also starting production on low power high-K processors in Q1 / Q2 2010. Even though there are some that remain rather skeptical about AMD's capability of making all this happen, the chip maker is confident in its strength, which means we might see all its plans become reality.
Photo Credits: AMD