Barcelona B3 Stepping, Fixed and Ready to Roll Out

Good news have finally start to emerge from the Advanced Micro Devices labs. It seems that the CPU manufacturer has managed to fix the infamous TLB erratum bug affecting its quad-core processors, and they will be ready for mass availability soon.

AMD chief executive officer Hector Ruiz announced that Opteron and Phenom processors are now fixed, as the B3 stepping CPU "has left the fab". Previous rumors that alleged the B3 stepping continued to be affected by the bug have now been dismantled and president Dirk Meyer stated that the CPU is "running through the paces internally".

Engineering samples will become available within two to three weeks now, while volume production will start later in the first quarter of the year. Immediately after the processors enter mass production, the first systems with the fixed processors are expected to emerge.

Moreover, according to Ruiz, the chip manufacturer has made serious progress in its 45-nanometer product line. The 45-nanometer Opterons have already been produced and the results look promising. These processors, however, will not enter mass production until the second half of the year. The delay not only will make AMD miss its initial launch date, set for mid-2008, but also contradicts Dirk Meyer's statement alleging that AMD would begin ramping 45-nanometer processors in the first half of 2008.

It seems that the 45-nanometer processors are likely to be unveiled in late 2008, which would allow Intel to take advantage of the one year difference between the companies' 45-nanometer products. However, in the light of the recent events, Intel might also encounter some problems with its 45-nanometer quad-core processors that will force the chip manufacturer delay its products, too.