AMD details CPU roadmap
updated 04:50 pm EDT, Thu July 26, 2007
AMD details CPU roadmap
At AMD's financial analysts' meeting today, the company laid down details for some of its previously shrouded processors, particularly those in future mobile platforms. The first of these is a product codenamed "Falcon," a part of the Fusion line, which will be a quad-core chipset using a core nicknamed "Bulldozer." Notably, it is already being touted as compatible with DirectX 10 and 11, the latter not having been exposed to the public.
Ultra-mobile devices will soon be equipped with the "Bobcat," a CPU designed to consume anywhere between 1 and 10W of power for minimal battery drainage. No other data about it has been made public.
In the realm of desktops, the entry- and mid-level platform for the remainder of 2007 will be represented by "Pinwheel," comprised of Athlon X2 processors with 690 chipsets and Hypertransport 3. The 2008 successor will be Cartwheel, also using X2s with but with 45nm circuitry and 1MB of L3 cache, in tandem with a 55nm DX10 graphics processor. The surrounding RS700 chipset should support PCIe2 devices.
Performance processors will come mainly in the form Phenom, with 2007 seeing the launch of 65nm chips and 2008 receving 45nm technology. 2007 will also witness the debut of dual- and quad-core Spider systems, with 2MB of L3 cache, while 2008 alone will have Hardcastle, a 45nm CPU with 6MB of L3.
The aforementioned Bulldozer core will be used in 2009's "Sandtiger," a server with eight to 16 cores and DDR3 memory support, as well as in mid- to high-level desktops. In roughly the same timeframe, "Copperhead" processors will target the mainstream with 32nm quad-core layouts, and Bulldozer will find its way into the Python platform, which will include 32nm Fusion processors intended to replace Phenom. [via TG Daily]
