Advanced Micro Devices said it would be able to ship its first microprocessors made using 65nm process technology to customers this October, according to a media report. This is a little earlier than some of the industry observers might have expected.

Toralf Gueldner, director of production at AMD’s Dresden fabs, is quoted as saying by The Inquirer that the company has been able to produce chips using its latest 65nm silicon-on-insulator process technology since June. Mr. Gueldner is reported to have said that the production volumes had turned to “full flow” in September and that would be followed by “serious 65nm shipments in October”.

Mr. Gueldner reportedly did not say which chips using 65nm are in production now and what are their characteristics. Back two years ago, when AMD was transiting from 130nm to 90nm process technology, it first made chips for mobile computers, then mainstream desktop processors and only then started to use the latest fabrication process for premium desktop and server central processing units.

A news-story published in mid-2006 even suggested that that in the fourth quarter of the year AMD will start commercial shipments of its first 65nm Athlon 64 X2 chip models 4200+ (2.20GHz, 1MB of cache [512KB per core]), 4400+ (2.20GHz, 2MB of cache [1MB per core]),  4600+ (2.40GHz, 1MB of cache [512KB per core]), and 4800+ (2.40GHz, 2MB of cache [1MB per core]), designed for socket AM2 infrastructure to system integrators. The web-site that published the story called the chips as code-named Brisbane, while earlier AMD’s chips with different cache sizes had different code-names. If the report is correct and there is no separate name for chips featuring 1MB of level-two cache (512KB per core), which means that AMD will disable part of the cache on certain chips.

While thinner process technology allows to increase clock-speed potential and/or pack additional circuitries into a processor, the first batch of AMD64 processors produced at 65nm will not be top-of-the-range products, which is inline with AMD’s strategy in transition to more advanced fabrication processes. The company first produces performance-mainstream or mobile chips – that have relatively conservative clock-speeds – using a new process technology.

AMD said earlier this year that Fab 36 remains on track to begin 65nm production shipments in the second-half of this year, and be substantially converted to 65nm production by mid-2007.