AMD Resurrects K8 Architecture for 2008 RoadmapLast week AMD CEO Hector Ruiz vowed that the company would stop hemorrhaging cash and return to profitability soon. "That is our number one goal right now," Ruiz said in a conference in Bangalore... The company will introduce eleven 65nm K8 processors over the next two quarters... Essentially, AMD will move any remaining Athlon 64 processors from the 90nm node to the 65nm node, with a few new frequency and TDP variations. The AMD Athlon 64 X2 5600+ will be the first to jump on the new 65nm K8 bandwagon with a 65W TDP. The previous Windsor-based chip of the same featured an 89-Watt TDP. AMD will also add 100 MHz to the core frequency of the Athlon 64 X2 5600+, now rated at 2.9 GHz. Total L2 cache will be halved in the move to the Brisbane core, and the updated Athlon 64 X2 5600+ chips will feature only 1MB of L2 cache. Availability of these processors is scheduled for Q1 2008... AMD will also update its "Energy Efficient" series and will release three new chips, the AMD Athlon 4850e, Athlon 4450e, and Athlon 4050e in Q2 2008. All of the new offerings will be based on AMD's Brisbane core and will feature a 45-Watt thermal envelope... All new Brisbane chips will be based on the Socket AM2 interface. These processors are compatible with AMD's AM2+ socket designated for Phenom processors.
by Kristopher Kubicki
and Gabriel Ikram
December 5, 2007
You basically have three choices on a shrink: lower the power, up the clock or put in more stuff. Or some balance of two or three.
I'm sad about AMD because I've always liked their chips, and I don't know if they can weather being second-best as well as Intel did. We need competition, it's the only thing that woke Intel up from the Pentium 4 days to produce the great chips they make now.