14 DAY TRIAL // American chip manufacturer AMD is drawing the bottom line over what should be regarded as a bad year for business. This year was marked with a series of disappointments in delivering the world's "first native quad-core processor". The Phenoms are affected by a design mistake that renders the computer useless, should it reach full load.
This is the result of a translation lookaside buffer erratum, a glitch that emerges especially in virtualized environments. Although the Phenoms are highly unlikely to make use of virtualization, since they are desktop processors, the same issue cripples AMD's server line, the Barcelonas.
The chip manufacturer has announced that it will release working Barcelonas and Phenoms (the B2 stepping) by the end of the first quarter of 2008. However, it seems that fixing the processors is more difficult than expected. Taiwanese manufacturers who are working on AMD's quad-core processors have disclosed that the first quarter release date will be pushed back until March or April.
The delay includes all the higher-end quad-core Phenom processors, such as 9700 and 9900. Apart from the Phenoms, the chip manufacturer may consider delaying the tri-cored Toliman processors, although the rumors have not been confirmed yet. The Tolimans are company's last chance, as they deliver a better price/performance ratio compared to Intel's quad-core CPUs.
To make things worse, Intel is decided to stick to the roadmap. The chip manufacturer has announced that the first days of 2008 will bring the "Penryn" quad-core processors, as well as an update to the Santa Rosa mobile platform.
On the other side, having AMD launch partially functional processors will harm the company even more, given the fact that they have lost their customers' support for the Phenom and Barcelona failure. AMD refused to confirm the rumors, but there are no company updates to show the customers that the processors will be ready on time.