AMD's processor plans for 2008

Posted on Sunday, December 09 2007 @ 18:54 CET by Thomas De Maesschalck
Nordic Hardware has some details about AMD's processor plans for 2008. The site says the B3 Phenom CPUs will arrive in volume in March and that the first tri-core chips will arrive in February, with large number shipments planned for March.
The earlier announced tri-core series is set for arrival in February 2008, and should be available in decent numbers the following month. Two models are currently planned for launch, Phenom 8700 and Phenom 8600 running at 2.4 and 2.3 Ghz respectively. These are disabled quad-core with 512KB L2 cache per core and a shared 2MB L3 cache, not suffering from the TLB errata (B3 stepping).

The new B3 stepping Phenoms are expected to arrive in large numbers in March as well. With the "new" Phenom 9700 model, there will also be a respin of the Phenom 9600 and 9500 models, called 9650 and 9550. Frequencies will remains the same, just less errata. There will also be a Phenom 9900 model in Q2, which together with the 9700 model will use the full HyperTransport 3.0 bandwidth of 4 GHz. Later in 2008, AMD will announce more Phenoms.

Phenom 9600 Black Edition is expected before the end of the year. It runs at the same 2.3 GHz as the regular Phenom 9600, but comes with an unlocked multiplier. The Phenom FX processors have been put on hold, but are not canceled per se, we just won't see them until AMD get their regular stuff working right.

With so few new processors based on the K10 architecture, AMD has had to turn to its K8 architecture once again to fill the large void that has appeared. AMD will sequentially move all of its current 90nm models to the 65nm manufacturing process, and refine frequencies somewhat. An extra 100 MHz will be added to some models, but at the same time cache will be cut in half. Since AMD isn't able to make enough 65nm Brisbane capable of +3.0GHz frequencies, the 6000+ and 6400+ models will be phased out.

AMD will once again revise its Energy Efficient lineup, including the name. Athlon 4850e (2.5GHz), Athlon 4450e (2.3Ghz), and Athlon 4050e (2.1GHz) are expected to replace the current BE-2xxx models in Q1 2008.
The first 45nm CPUs from AMD should arrive by the end of 2008. These chips will use less power and should feature higher clocks.


About the Author

Thomas De Maesschalck

Thomas has been messing with computer since early childhood and firmly believes the Internet is the best thing since sliced bread. Enjoys playing with new tech, is fascinated by science, and passionate about financial markets. When not behind a computer, he can be found with running shoes on or lifting heavy weights in the weight room.



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