X-bit labs

AMD’s High-Performance Phenom Microprocessors Slip into Third Quarter – Rumours.

Category: CPU

by Anton Shilov

[ 02/04/2008 | 08:32 AM ]

Advanced Micro Devices has once again rescheduled release dates of its quad-core AMD Phenom microprocessors with decent performance. With new central processing units (CPUs) only due in the second half of the year, the world’s second largest supplier of x86 chips will have to rely only on entry-level and mainstream chips in the whole first half of 2008.

According to a news-story from HKEPC web-site that cites sources among mainboard makers, quad-core AMD Phenom 9700 (2.40GHz) and 9900 (2.60GHz) microprocessors have been cancelled and will not be released. Instead, AMD plans to launch AMD Phenom 9750 (2.40GHz) in May or June and to release AMD Phenom 9950 (2.60GHz) sometime in Q3.

After a Translation Lookaside Buffer (TLB)-related erratum was discovered in AMD Phenom microprocessors and AMD had to impose a fix that reduced performance of the CPUs, Advanced Micro Devices announced a new B3 stepping of the chip with bug corrected without performance degradation. Unfortunately for AMD, the new chips will only become available for its customers sometime in late Q2 2008 with chips that offer higher performance only due in Q3.

Besides delay of certain quad-core microprocessors based on the B3 stepping, AMD will postpone its triple-core AMD Phenom 8450, 8650 and 8750 to May or June, whereas B2-based models 8400 and 8600 will be launched in March.

The delay of the advanced AMD Phenom microprocessors to Q2 or Q3 2008 will slowdown AMD’s income growth in the first two quarters, as presently existing AMD Athlon 64 X2 as well as entry-level AMD Phenom processors are not competitive against higher-end Intel Core 2 chips in terms of performance. As a consequence, AMD will have to focus on selling primarily lower-end CPUs that have low profit margins.

AMD did not comment on the news-story.