X-bit labs

AMD’s New Processor Micro-Architecture in 2008 – Chief Executive.

Category: CPU

by Anton Shilov

[ 06/22/2006 | 01:47 AM ]

Advanced Micro Devices’ chief executive said that his company was planning to commercially release processors with new micro-architecture in 2008 after making pilot production in 2007. The introduction of the new micro-architecture may significantly boost performance of the company’s microprocessors, which are to face increased pressure from competing solutions by Intel Corp.

“We’re going to introduce a really new architecture that will work well with our partners for the best performance. We’re going to start sampling it at the end of 2007 and roll it out in 2008,” said Hector Ruiz, chief executive of AMD, in an interview with BusinessWeek.

Earlier it was projected that in 2007 the Sunnyvale, California-based chipmaker will introduce instruction extensions to the AMD64 micro-architecture and will bring-in HyperTransport technology in 2008. But recently the company said in a statement that AMD’s “next-generation architecture for servers, workstations and desktops” is planned to debut in mid-2007, and is expected to offer better platform performance-per-watt ratio as well as enterprise application performance.

The products to debut next year 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 65nm silicon-on-insulator process, and include a broad range of functionality and micro-architectural improvements, including a new ability to dynamically alter the frequency of each core on the chip to match application workloads and thereby reduce overall power consumption.

It is uncertain, whether Mr. Ruiz mentioned the ’07 products and provided very conservative market penetration guidance, or something totally new, which should be available two years after from now.

“We’re in the throes of finalizing the architecture we’re going to introduce next, and that’s going to be killer,” Mr. Ruiz added.