AMD Maps Out Processor Plans

With layoffs and a falling stock price in the background, AMD is looking ahead, at least until 2010, when it plans to release the 12-core Magny-Cours server chip.Between now and then, AMD is moving from 65-nm to 45-nm process technology, and will ship by year's end a four-core server CPU called Shanghai that performs 20 percent better than the four-core Barcelona chip. In late 2009, AMD plans to release a six-core processor called Istanbul, which it says will deliver a 20 percent performance boost over Shanghai. In 2010, Istanbul will be upstaged by the six-core Sao Paulo chip, two of which in parallel will comprise Magny-Cours.

Analysts seem to agree that AMD is on the right path, particularly in light of its recent troubles. "They are not knocking the ball out of the park as they did a few years ago with the original Opteron design, but they are staying in the game, and that's the best they can do right now," an Insight64 analyst told EETimes.EETimes, PC Pro