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AMD Says It Is on Track with 45nm Process Technology

Advanced Micro Devices said in its most recent call with financial analysts that despite of relatively slow ramp of its quad-core microprocessors the chipmaker does not expect any issues to occur with the ramp up of its 45nm production technology.

“We’re looking forward to ramping 45nm product production in the first half of next year,” said Dirk Meyer, president and chief operating officer of AMD.

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AMD posted a better-than-expected quarterly loss on Thursday as its gross margins improved.

AMD, which competes with market leader Intel, said its third-quarter net loss was $396 million, or 71 cents per share, compared to a net profit of $136 million, or 27 cents per share, in the year-ago period.

Revenue rose 23 percent to $1.63 billion, beating the average analyst forecast of $1.52 billion according to Reuters Estimates.

Click for more on AMD posts quarterly net loss as costs rise »

AMD reveals the model names and operating frequencies of its quad-core Phenom desktop processors

AMD plans to debut its initial quad-core Phenom processors in late November: the Phenom 9600 and 9500. The 9600 will come clocked at 2.4GHz and the 9500 will have a slightly lower operating frequency of 2.2GHz.

Both Socket AM2+ processors feature a 512KB of L2 cache for each core and a shared 2MB pool of L3 cache. In addition, both processors will operate on a 3.6GHz HyperTransport bus and will have an 89 Watt Thermal Design Power envelope. 

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Though many leaks of the product have been circulating for some time, Intel officially took the wraps off and launched their new X38 Express chipset for the high-end desktop motherboard market.

With this launch, the Intel desktop chipset line-up gets a new flagship. Intel’s new X38 chipset encompasses all of the technology advances that have made the P35 a success and adds a slew of new features designed to increase memory and graphics subsystem performance, like PCI Express 2.0 SerDes and Intel Extreme Memory technology in the new X38 MCH. The Asus motherboard tested by HotHardware even features an embedded Linux-based OS that boots in a matter a seconds.

Click for more on Intel X38 High End Chipset Launch and Benchmarks »

Even though there are not a lot of single-core chips in Intel’s microprocessor lineup now, quad-core processors are not going to become really affordable soon enough.

After Intel introduces its new 45nm central processing units in January, 2008, the company will not cut pricing of its Intel Core 2 Quad below $266.

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AMD plans to launch the new Triple-Core processor family by Q1 next year and it will be called Phenom 7-series instead.

The codename for the Triple-core processors is Toliman, a 65nm quad-core Agena core based with one core disabled. There will be 2 models at launch; Phenom 7700 and 7600 clocked at 2.5GHz and 2.3GHz respectively. Both processors will be AM2+ based, 3 x 512LB of L2 cache, 2MB of shared L3 cache and has TDP of 89W. We can expect DVT samples to be available by January, production by February and launch by March 2008. Further down the roadmap, we can see 3-core Heka based on 45nm quad-core Deneb with one core disabled supporting AM3 in H1 2009.

AMD has adjusted prices for its desktop processors along with  new 45 watt single-core CPUs in the manufacturer’s lineup.

The price reduction is less dramatic than the previous rounds, but drives the firm’s fastest desktop processors even deeper into the mainstream and entry-level segment, making room for the higher performing Phenom CPUs. AMD’s dual-core desktop processors, excluding the $599 Quad FX-74, include 14 different CPUs ranging from $68 for the Athlon 64 X2 4000+ to $220 for the X2 6400+ Black Edition. In comparison, Intel offers 22 dual- and quad-core processors from $74 to $530 (not including four Extreme Edition CPUs)

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Advanced Micro Devices announced yet another price slashing movement of its dual core central processing units.

On the other side of the fence Intel is preparing too as the company announced the imminent launch of two high performance desktop chipsets, as well as the soon to come release of its 45 nanometer processing units that are poised to directly compete with AMD’s product lines.

Click for more on AMD Pricecut For Dual-Cores Next Week »

As long as competition stays reasonably tight, though, the real winner isn’t going to be Intel or AMD: it’s going to be the end-users.

Both AMD and Intel have enough horsepower with their integrated graphics solutions to drive Windows Vista’s Aero interface, so if you’re not going to be gaming then either integrated graphics solutions is more than enough. Windows and animations did seem to render more smoothly on the Intel platform but we’re not sure if that’s a driver, GPU, or CPU advantage.

Click for more on Midrange CPU Roundup: It’s Time to Buy »

Aim on moving software-running virtual machines from servers running older Intel processors to the chipmaker’s next-generation Xeon designs.

VMware is building support for Intel’s FlexMigration assist for virtualized environments in VMware’s Vmotion technology, which is used to move running virtual machines from one physical server to another. The collaboration is expected to help VMware customers move virtual machines to Intel’s upcoming processors based on its 45nm scale process technology, Jake Smith of Intel’s Advance Server Technology Group told InformationWeek.

Click for more on Intel, VMware Partner In Virtual Machine Migration »