X-bit labs

AMD Lines Up Release of New Performance System Components.

Category: Video

by Anton Shilov

[ 11/08/2007 | 05:07 PM ]

Advanced Micro Devices has aligned the launch of the highly-anticipated AMD Phenom processor and the new ATI Radeon HD 3000-series graphics cards and will formally launch them on Monday, the 19^th of November, sources familiar with the plans said.

While the launch allows AMD to claim a high-performance “Spider” platform for gamers, it has caused the company to intentionally delay a new graphics chip along with new chipsets. It is uncertain whether the decision was reasonable.

AMD has been discussing its code-named Spider platform for customers seeking high-performance for a number of months, however, it did not unveil the actual performance capabilities of the platform. Nevertheless, as the company is struggling to deliver high-performance quad-core central processing units (CPUs) based on the new micro architecture, the actual release of the platform called “Spider” has faced postpones due to clock-speed issues with the new CPUs.

According to sources familiar with the plans of the world’s second largest maker of x86 chips, AMD will only be able to deliver mainstream versions its quad-core AMD Phenom products at 2.20GHz and 2.30GHz clock-speeds at launch and 2.40GHz in December, 2007. Meanwhile, high-speed versions of the consumer-oriented AMD CPUs are projected to become available in 2008.

Meanwhile, code-named ATI RV670 graphics chips were tested back in August, 2007, also faced delays due to AMD’s platform launch nature. As a consequence, graphics product group of AMD, the former ATI Technologies, further loses market and revenue share due to the decision.

Under the management of Hector Ruiz and Dirk Meyer, graphics and multimedia business of ATI Technologies lost 40% of graphics products revenue in Q2 2007 compared to Q2 2006* (down from $325 million to $195 million) and also lost 37% of consumer electronics sales in Q2 2007 annually (down from $135 million to $85 million). Moreover, sales of AMD’s own computing solutions also declined in Q2 2007 by 10% annually from $1.22 billion to $1.098 billion in Q2 2007, which is pretty alarming, as a year ago AMD’s computing solutions revenues did not include sales of ATI’s chipsets. AMD announced $252 million revenue for its graphics devision back in the most recent [Q3]quarter.