AMD's next-generation processors to launch within a year

Chief Technology Officer Phil Hester outlined AMD’s primary design directions for the future at the AMD analyst day, and reiterated the company’s commitment to system-wide innovation based on close collaboration with customers and partners. Hester unveiled AMD’s next-generation architecture for server and desktop processors, a new chip design for future mobile platforms, and AMD’s updated processor and platform technology roadmaps.

AMD’s next-generation architecture for servers, workstations and desktops is planned to debut in mid-2007, and is expected to extend AMD’s leadership in platform performance-per-watt as well as its leadership in critical enterprise application performance.

Products will include a quad-core design for servers, workstations and high-end desktops, and a dual-core design intended for mainstream desktop markets. These next generation processors will be built using AMD’s advanced 65nm Silicon-on-Insulator process, and include a broad range of functionality and micro-architectural improvements, including a unique new ability to dynamically alter the frequency of each core on the chip to match application workloads and thereby reduce overall power consumption. As a result, AMD expects to increase the performance-per-watt of today’s AMD Opteron processor-powered servers by approximately 60 percent through 2007, and by approximately 150 percent through 2008.

AMD’s new mobile design is planned for the second half of 2007, and includes key architectural advancements allowing for increased power efficiency and battery life in AMD processor-powered mobile platforms. One improvement increases the ability for future AMD dual-core mobile chips to dynamically power one or both cores on or off, and subsequently throttle the chip’s HyperTransport technology bandwidth, depending on the notebook’s current state and running applications.