VR Zone heard rumors that AMD's Piledriver "Vishera" processors will not be replacing the "Zambezi" Bulldozer chips because there's simply not enough improvement in per core performance from Bulldozer to Piledriver to justify a new product release. The site heard speculation that AMD is now placing its hope on Steamroller, a 28nm core planned for early 2013.
. Only the "Abu Dhabi' dual die lower clock 16-core total server chip should be out next month. Why?
Well, one reason could be that, maybe, there is not enough improvement in per core performance from "Bulldozer" to "Piledriver" to justify the new product release, as it wouldn't improve the competitive position against Intel in the desktop segment at all. Whether it is 'instruction per clock' IPC or pure clock frequency, both have to contribute to the end performance to justify the product.
The other reason, linked to the first one, can be - likely - that AMD now has to place its hopes to the upcoming 'Steamroller' core early next year, coupled with the 28 nm process. I guess we can accept that and give the AMD CPU team more time to do that migration, as long as it is real soon now. Else, another excuse this time next year, to maybe wait for 'Excavator' to fix things, would be really unacceptable...
On another note, it's also unclear what's going on with AMD's desktop Trinity APUs.
