The Transition to K8L Will Be Slow

It takes a lot of time to switch from one CPU architecture to another. INTEL knows that and it seems that so does AMD. If you look back at the moment where Core 2 Duo CPUs came out you will realize that after more than 6 months of dominating the market INTEL is still making good bucks out of older NetBurst CPUs. And keep in mind that INTEL uses the same socket both for its old and for its new CPUs. In AMD’s case that won’t happen since AM2+ won’t be 100% compatible with AM2. There are lots of sources on the internet where you can get some detailed info regarding the K8L architecture so I won’t say much here. I will however point out that the new 65nm CPUs coming from AMD will be native dual core and quad core parts. 128-bit SSE units and unified cache will certainly help AMD compete INTEL in a more efficient way since K8L are said to be at least as fast as Core 2 CPUs running at the same clock speed.

By the Q4 of 2007, AMD’s product line will include only 20% of AM2+ processors, while by the end of Q1 of 2008, the market quota of AM2+ processors will rise to 60%, claim sources close to AMD. So it will take them more than 3 quarters of 2007 to have an important percent of the market covered with AM2+ products. And that’s enough time for INTEL to jump in the 45nm wagon. INTEL already has some 45nm working samples so the launch date won’t be too far in the future, especially because they plan to hold on to their advantage regarding the manufacturing process. Whether that will actually happen, remains to be seen.

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