AMD to crush AMD with 2.0GHz 'Barcelona'
84894
Hits stores in September Barcelona has arrived, sort of, and AMD is talking more about beating itself up than knocking Intel with the new chip.â¦
59057
Although the FX-55 runs at 2.6 gigahertz, AMD claims its efficiency makes it a rival of the 4 GHz Pentium processor that Intel dropped from development last week.
416610
(InfoWorld) - Server makers are showing their first systems based on Advanced Micro Devices'Â upcoming quad-core Opteron chip, known as Barcelona. Barcelona servers from Supermicro Computer, Tyan Computer, and Uniwide TechnologiesÂ are on show at Taipei's annual Computex exhibition, which started Tuesday. The appearance of the chips, which are scheduled to ship later this year, signals they are getting closer to the market. Detailed specifications of the chips and servers on display were not immediately available. AMD is counting on Barcelona to boost its sales, and market share, in the face ofÂ heated competition from rival Intel. Barcelona, which is manufactured using a 65-nanometer process, contains four processor cores on a single piece of silicon. By comparison, Intel's quad-core chips use two pieces of silicon, each containing two cores, strapped together inside a single package. AMD claims its design gives Barcelona a significant boost in performance -- as much as 50 percent to 80 percent -- over its current Opteron chips. Uniwide and Supermicro are showing Barcelona systems that take advantage of a power-saving feature of the chip. Called Dual Dynamic Power Management, this allows the processor cores and on-chip memory controller to draw power separately, which AMD said allows better performance and power management. AMD also promised an easy upgrade path for existing Opteron customers. Motherboards that support current Opteron chips can be upgraded for the quad-core chips by updating the BIOS. Dual-core chips can then be swapped for quad-core Barcelona processors, which use the same chipsets and processor sockets. Tyan and Asustek ComputerÂ are among the companies making upgradeable motherboards.
352291
Advanced Micro Devices has given out more details on its fortcoming dual-core microprocessor chip. The Opteron-based design is said to be 30-55 percent faster than AMD&#39;s single-core chips, but it will fit in existing server designs.
128848
Peter Glaskowsky analyzes the potential benefits of AMD's new quad-core Opteron processors for data centers.
442976
Finally ending rumors of delays, AMD announced that its quad-core Opteron server processors, known also by the codename of &quot;Barcelona,&quot; will be shipping later this summer. The chips, the company&#39;s first quad-cores, might help AMD regain its financial footing and help it compete with archrival Intel.
613479
Eyeing Sun's Niagara flow Intel has confirmed plans to "tick" and "tock" AMD into submission.â¦
585920
(InfoWorld) - AMD will delay its launch of the Barcelona quad-core Opteron server chip from its expected date in July until October, setting the company back in its effort to compete with new processors from Intel, according to analyst reports. Processor companies make more money selling server chips than desktop or laptop chips, so the move will hit AMD's 2007 earnings hard, pushing the company to lose $2.59 per share instead of only $2.48 per share, according to a report released Tuesday by Citigroup analyst Glen Yeung. "Barcelona is generally viewed to beÂ AMD's best opportunity to stem server share loss to Intel. While AMD's recent notebook win at Toshiba may balance any negative revenue implications to our current model, Barcelona's delay has negative implications for AMD's gross margin," Yeung wrote. His estimate is a larger loss than the consensus Thomson Financial forecast that AMD will lose $2.47 per share for 2007. The news comes at a bad time for AMD, which has promised for months that it would launch the chip in the second half of 2007,Â helping the company to rebound from the effects of a price war with Intel. AMD is already hurting,Â posting a $611 million first-quarter lossÂ in April, following on the heels of theÂ $574 million loss reported in JanuaryÂ for fourth quarter earnings last year. Barcelona is the key to taking that fiscal burden off AMD's shoulders,Â AMD CEO Hector Ruiz said on May 3 at the company's annual shareholder meeting. Although Intel is several quarters ahead in improving its chip manufacturing capabilities, AMD stays competitive by creating more innovative designs, he said. AMD claims Barcelona will deliver better performance on memory-intensive applications than Intel's Clovertown quad-core Xeon server chips that have been on the market since November. AMD stuck to its guns on Wednesday, insisting that it is still on schedule, and pointing as evidence to itsÂ demonstration on Tuesday of prototype Barcelona chips in serversÂ from infrastructure partners Supermicro Computer, Tyan Computer, and Uniwide Technologies at theÂ Computex trade show in Taipei. "We remain on track for a summer 2007 launch with partners shipping platforms in the third quarter," said AMD spokeswoman Marian Kelley. She blamed the delay rumors on Cray's announcement Monday that it expects revenue to drop because of a delay in shipping its quad-core Cray XT4 systems. In fact, Cray was referring to AMD's midrange Budapest processor, not Barcelona, she said. "The guidance that we've been giving and that we're sticking to is that Budapest will follow Barcelona in the second half of 2007," Kelley said. Despite AMD's assurances, other analysts echoed the Citigroup report, saying they have heard similar news from server vendors, distributors and board makers. On May 30, another report called AMD's promise to launch Barcelona in mid-2007 "a head fake" since the chip will not be available at full volume until August at the earliest, according to a note from analyst Patrick Wang at Thomas Weisel Partners. In contrast, Intel is expected to succeed in shipping its Penryn processors in the late third quarter or early fourth quarter. That timing will allow Intel to essentially catch up to AMD and soften the blow of losing sales to customers who see a performance advantage in Barcelona, Wang said.
483578
If you pay, you can fill our slot AMD has expanded its friends and family program in an obvious way by allowing partners to plug their CPUs, accelerators and other components directly into Opteron processor sockets. AMD's unveiling today of Torrenza 2 - aka the Torrenza Innovation Socket - builds on an existing deal that let third parties tap into the company's Hypertransport technology. Now, AMD has agreed to open up the entire Opteron socket specifications to preferred partners willing to pay a licensing fee. As a result, customers could start seeing some odd but fantastic motherboards with, for example, a mix of Opteron and Cell chips or even an UltraSPARC T1/Opteron combo.â¦
328309
InfoWorld - Intel plans to unveil a version of its Xeon processor on Wednesday that&#39;s designed for high-end servers with multiple processors -- setting the stage for a showdown with rival&#160;Advanced Micro Devices&#39; upcoming quad-core Barcelona chip.
394992
InfoWorld - AMD will delay its launch of the Barcelona quad-core Opteron server chip from its expected date in July until October, setting the company back in its effort to compete with new processors from Intel, according to analyst reports.
159702
Socket AM2+ may be key to AM3 backwards compatibility AMD looks set to implement a Socket AM2 revision spanning the processor interconnect's current specification and the upcoming Socket AM3 due in 2008. That at least is what reports coming out of Taiwan citing local motherboard-maker sources claim.â¦
72425
Remedy for recent shortages, it's suggested AMD will ship its 65nm dual-core Athlon 64 X2 processors a week on Tuesday, it has been claimed. If correct, the 5 December debut apparently marks an acceleration of AMD's anticipated 65nm roll-out schedule.â¦
622379
The new Mobile AMD Athlon 64 processor 3000+ operates at 2GHz and is meant for use in thin and lightweight notebook computers. It is the highest performing processor in AMD&#39;s family of low-power Mobile AMD
205848
InfoWorld - AMD hopes to seize a larger share of the server chip market from&#160;its rival Intel&#160;on Monday when it launches the Barcelona quad-core processor.
700500
With Christmas just 11 days away, you have to wonder what Hector Ruiz is going to find under his tree. It&#8217;s been a terrible year for Advanced Micro Devices, and the chipmaker&#8217;s analysts conference on Thursday did nothing to spread holiday cheer.Confirming what many in the chip world had suspected for some time, CEO Ruiz and other AMD execs fessed up that bugs in its new quad-core Barcelona server and Phenom desktop chips will&#160;delay these key next-generation technologies.The technical problems will delay general availability of the fastest version of the chips for three or four months. Customers willing to settle for slower clock speeds will be able to get the processors sooner; for example, AMD will ship a 2 gigahertz version of the Barcelona first, instead of the expected 2.5 gigahertz speed. In either case, the chips will be close to a year late; the original target date was the first quarter of 2007.AMD STUMBLES AS INTEL SPEEDS AHEADThe problem couldn&#8217;t come at a worse time. AMD has struggled all year to close the performance gap between its high-end chips and Intel&#8217;s. Barcelona, the company had promised, would restore its technical supremacy. Indeed some analysts said they had expected the quad-core server chip to do just that. &#8220;At 2.5 gigahertz it would have beaten any Intel products,&#8221; said analyst Nathan Brookwood of Insight64. &#8220;But at 2 gigahertz, it&#8217;s bringing up the rear,&#8221; he said.Intel, meanwhile, has corrected many of the problems that dogged it earlier in the decade. &#8220;AMD isn&#8217;t competing against the Intel of two years ago,&#8221; said Dean McCarron of Mercury Research. Intel has had quad-core chips in the market for about a year. To be fair, its chips are based on a somewhat simpler design; Intel gets to four cores by packaging two dual-core chips together. By contrast, AMD&#8217;s design integrates four cores on one chip, a more efficient solution, said McCarron. Except that AMD&#8217;s approach reduces yields and thus raises manufacturing costs, he added.There was earlier speculation that Barcelona&#8217;s problems were related to the ATI graphics chipset, but the problem turns out to be deeper, at the chip level. AMD has said it is related to the translation lookaside buffer (TLB) in the processor&#39;s L3 cache.DOUBTS ABOUT A QUICK FIXIn the Thursday conference, analysts had expected discussion of the company&#8217;s &#8220;asset light strategy,&#8221; which will apparently entail outsourcing more manufacturing to foundries such as Chartered Semiconductor or TSMC. But they didn&#8217;t get it, and the lack of details made CEO Ruiz&#8217;s promise to return to profitability in 2008 less credible to Wall Street. AMD&#8217;s financial performance has been terrible, losing money for four straight quarters. Part of the reason: Intel and AMD have engaged in a bloody price war, a struggle that has been very tough on the smaller company&#8217;s profit margins. But the Barcelona and Phenom delays are serious self-inflicted wounds.AMD&#8217;s stock lost another few points yesterday and has now shed about 40% in the last two months and a bone-jarring 56% since the beginning of the year. At $8.84 a share, Thursday&#8217;s closing price, the stock is at its lowest ebb since the summer of 2003. Ironically, AMD has so far&#160;rewarded Ruiz with pay raises.
410144
AMD has delayed general availability of some key products until early next year, when it projects the chips, along with other new processors, will return it to profitability.The biggest hit went to its quad-core microprocessor, code-named Barcelona, which it needs to compete against Intel among server vendors. The chips, along with AMD&#39;s desktop platform, Phenom, won&#39;t be generally available to customers until the first quarter of next year. The products were supposed to ship in volume by the end of this year, but&#160;a technical design error in the chips caused AMD to slow the schedule so it could apply a fix, said Dirk Meyer, the company&#39;s president and COO in a meeting with analysts on Thursday.The company&#39;s Puma platform, a set of chips aimed at laptop PCs, will also be delayed until the second quarter of next year, a costly miss considering the fact that the laptop PC market is growing at around 30 percent per year.AMD also reduced its planned spending on new production lines to $1.1 billion from a previous estimate of $1.7 billion and said all its business divisions wouldn&#39;t return to profitability until next year.The statements caused AMD&#39;s stock to fall as much as 5 percent during early trading on the New York Stock Exchange, before rebounding to down just 1.8 percent, at $8.81 in the afternoon. The market was still open as of this writing.AMD executives apologized for missteps, such as the delay in Barcelona.&quot;We blew it, we&#39;re very humbled by it, we learned from it, and we&#39;re not going to do it again,&quot; said Hector Ruiz, chairman and CEO of AMD. He said AMD would go back to its habit of under-promising and over-delivering.To start, the company will be on a path to break even financially by the second quarter of next year and return to profitability by the end of the third quarter, he said. The financial performance will be boosted by the launch of several new products in graphics, chipsets, digital TV processors, and more, not including the delayed products.The company forecast its processor shipments will rise at least 15 percent next year, while graphics processor shipment growth will be greater than 6 percent, digital TV processors more than 13 percent, and handheld chips up 8 percent.AMD&#39;s gross margin will rise to between 46 percent and 50 percent next year, up from 37 percent during the past four quarters, said Bob Rivet, chief financial officer of AMD.&quot;We&#8217;re in a massive product refresh. In 2007, we were living on some old stuff. 2008 is all new stuff, and we believe it will yield goodness,&quot; he said.