AMD Shrinks Desktop Chips to 65nm
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Company playing catch-up with Intel, begins selling dual-core Athlon 64 X2 processors based on smaller design.
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Company alters traditional chip configuration to pack more memory into an even smaller unit.
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(InfoWorld) - Advanced Micro Devices is undaunted by rival Intelâs recent headline-grabbing announcements of 45-nm (nanometer) processing technology and a deal to supply Xeon chips to Sun Microsystems. Interviewed at the DesignCon 2007 conference in Santa Clara, Calif., last week, Steve Polzin, chief platform architect in the Computation Products Group at AMD, said his company would, in time, also use 45-nm manufacturing technology through its alliances with Sony, Toshiba, and IBM. âWe have access to very similar technology that weâll be able to use in 45-nm,â Polzin said. âItâs a weapon in our arsenal.â Intel sent tremors through the hypercompetitive chip market last week when it made good on promises to begin producing 45-nm chips by the second half of this year. More concerning for AMD, Intel said the new chips would consume less energy and generate less heat than existing chips, thanks to a new material dubbed âhigh-kâ that is used in the insulating material for transistors. Polzin would not commit on a time frame for when AMD would use 45-nm, except to say that the company would do so âwhen it makes sense.â AMD currently uses 65-nm processing technology in its Opteron CPU line. âPushing technology for technologyâs sake is not what we do,â Polzin said. The 45-nm technology will be applicable from systems ranging from laptops to datacenters, he said. Intel does not have a big jump on AMD, said analyst Mary Olsson of Gary Smith EDA, and 45-nm systems will not be heavily used for three to four years. As for Sunâs deal to use Intel CPUs after having relied on only AMD for x86 chips, Polzin said the arrangement was not unexpected, with Intel now leveraging AMD-championed technology in Xeon. âWe knew that one of the key factors that attracted Sun to AMD was the 64-bit extensions to x86,â Polzin said. âAMD64 is great technology. Intel decided to copy it, so what the heck.â Sun, as an AMD customer, is free to choose whichever suppliers it wants, Polzin said, adding that Sun is one of its âvery valued customersâ and that the companies still work closely. At the conference, Polzin cited the evolution of processors, which have grown from 16-bit to 32-bit and 64-bit units. Multicore processors also have arrived, he noted. The company plans its quad-processor Opteron offerings for a midyear release. Eight-core chips are on the drawing board as well. In 2009, the company plans to offer graphics processors and CPUs on the same chip as part of its Fusion initiative. This technology will be offered in the mobile Turion chip, Polzin said.
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Advanced Micro Devices Inc.   on Monday launched a line of computer processors that  use less power, saying its adoption of new manufacturing  techniques will help it compete with rival Intel Corp.
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According to AMD, the Mobile AMD Athlon 64 processor 3000+ is the first processor manufactured with AMD&#39;s 90-nanometer technique, a semiconductor process designed to enable higher performance without increased power consumption.
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Intel Corp. INTC.O on Thursday  canceled plans to introduce its highest-speed desktop computer  chip, ending for now a 25-year run that has seen the speeds of  Intel's microprocessors increase by more than 750 times.
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AMD has launched the Mobile AMD Athlon 64 processor, a low-power version of its 32/64-bit chip aimed at the thin-and-light notebook market.
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Single-core products still present, despite rumours AMD today took the axe to its desktop processor price list, knocking up to almost 30 per cent off what it charges for its gaming, mainstream and budget CPUs, as expected. Still, an much-anticipated move to drop single-core chips from the line-up did not take place.â¦
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CONTRADICTING fears that the semiconductor industry&#39;s pace of development is slowing, Intel has achieved a milestone in shrinking the size of transistors that will power next-generation chips.
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Chip maker plans for smaller, faster, less power-hungry processors.
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AMD has introduced its latest Mobile AMD Sempron processor 3000+, which is designed for thin notebooks. Built to compete with Intel&#39;s Centrino, the AMD processor offers Enhanced Virus Protection
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AMD began selling its dual-core desktop PC chip with a 65-nanometer design, making it faster and more efficient than the 90-nm version.
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Advanced Micro Devices gave further details of its&#160;upcoming Fusion processor, saying it will be based on the design of a microprocessor used in the desktops currently shipping to enthusiast PC users such as gamers.The Fusion chip, which will combine a graphics processing unit and CPU on one chip, will be a redesign of the company&#39;s current&#160;Phenom processor, said Patrick Moorhead, vice president of advanced marketing at AMD, in an interview. However, the Fusion chip will witness significant design changes from the current iteration of Phenom, Moorhead said.The Fusion chip, code-named Swift, will be shrunk from the Phenom core and be optimized for use in a notebook, Moorhead said. The optimization will focus on making the chip more power-efficient while increasing graphics capabilities, Moorhead said.The graphics processing unit on the Fusion chip will include multiple &quot;mini-cores&quot; that breaks down code from a program, like 3-D games, to process data faster, said John Taylor, an AMD spokesman. Fusion&#39;s graphics processor will be based on a graphics card AMD plans to release in the near future, Taylor said, declining to give details.The first Fusion chips will be released as dual-core CPUs for notebooks, followed by quad-core CPUs for notebooks, Moorhead said. The dual-core notebook processors will be available in the second half of 2009, said John Taylor, an AMD spokesman. The company didn&#39;t provide a timeline for the quad-core chips.Fusion chips will also be released eventually for desktops, Taylor said, although he declined to comment on a release date.Originally released as part of the &quot;Spider&quot; multimedia platform last year, the Phenom processor has an integrated memory controller, cache, and four cores on a single chip. Currently available in speeds up to 2.3GHz, AMD earlier this month delayed the shipment of the faster Phenom 9700 and 9900 quad-core processors to the second quarter. The company is due to ship a triple-core Phenom processor later this year.The Fusion CPU is part of Project Shrike, the next-generation platform that will be an upgrade to the company&#39;s upcoming Puma platform. It includes the Turion Ultra processor, code-named Griffin. The Puma platform boosts a system&#39;s graphics performance by running both the integrated graphics processor and a graphics card attached to the motherboard together.Like Puma, additional graphics cards can be attached to boost performance of systems based on Project Shrike, Taylor said.Fusion chips will be made using AMD&#39;s 45-nanometer production technology, said Mario Rivas, executive vice president of the computing products group, during a meeting in December.Fusion isn&#39;t being designed for ultramobile PCs, Moorhead said. &quot;The jury is still out on whether the UMPC market has legs or not. But we&#39;ll see,&quot; Moorhead said.Plans to launch the Fusion chip were announced when AMD bought ATI for US$5.4 billion in 2006. The acquisition of ATI was also viewed as a potent weapon in AMD&#39;s attempt to dent Intel&#39;s domination of the x86 processor market. However, AMD has struggled lately, announcing five straight quarterly losses, delaying processor shipments, and falling behind Intel in chip production.Intel has already rolled out more than 30 Penryn-based chips based on the 45-nanometer process, with AMD still producing chips using the older 65-nm process.
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Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) will implement the strained silicon manufacturing technique on its upcoming 90-nanometer processors as well as 130-nanometer processors released this quarter, an AMD spokesman said Friday.
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Contradicting fears that the semiconductor industry's pace of development is slowing, Intel Corp. announced it has achieved a milestone in shrinking the size of transistors that will power its next-generation chips.
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US chipmaker AMD on Monday introduced a faster mobile chip, Athlon 64 processor 3000+, for thin and light notebook computers. The new chip enables a powerful 32-bit computing
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AMD&#39;s 64-bit processor line has carried the company from red to black ink in the third quarter. AMD today posted $1.2bn in revenue and income of $44m for the period.