AMD X3 Processor Line Will Live On After Bulldozer Launch

Released after the introduction of the first AMD Phenom processors as a way of reclaiming some of the defective quad-core chips, the X3 CPU line will continue to be part of the company's offerings even after Bulldozer is launched, according to an AMD official.

"In most instances dual-core computing was adequate for the majority of users and with an additional core to service the OS, one of the more significant bottlenecks was addressed,” said Matt Davis, an AMD product marketing manager for desktop solutions, in an interview with the Hardwareheaven website.

“Triple-core processors continue to address customer and consumer needs by delivering great performance at great prices.

As long as the industry and market find value in these products and request them - AMD will address the need," concluded the company's rep.

What is unclear though is what architecture AMD will use for the upcoming X3 chips as the current K10 core (used for Phenom II and Athlon II) is going to be eventually pulled out of production with the advent of Bulldozer and Llano processors.

According to Xbit Labs, since Bulldozer is based on a modular design that pairs together two independent integer cores with a floating point unit, is highly unlikely for AMD to use this approach for future X3 processors.

This means that the only option left is to use the Llano APU that is based on the same K10 core, but adds an on-die GPU.

Destined to become the company's second Fusion chip, Llano is scheduled to debut in the first half of 2010.

Right now, AMD's X3 processor line carries an important number of models, some based on the Heka and some on the Rana core.

Both are derived form the K10 architecture, the latter lacking the L3 cache that is associated with Phenom processors.