AMD can fab Barcelonas, no probs at all

A SENIOR EXECUTIVE at Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) dismissed rumours that it was having problems producing future monolithic chips, codenamed Barcelona, using its own fabs.

Henri Richard, senior executive marketing director at AMD, told the INQ: "I usually never comment on rumors but this one is so silly I will break my own rule. There is absolutely no ground to this story."

Financial analyst firm Thomas Weisel, said yesterday that it is now convinced senior corporate and other partners have got beta samples of Barcelona.

In a note to its clients, Thomas Weisel said that Barcelona will be introduced at clock speeds between 1.9GHz and 2.5GHz. But the analyst firm believes clock speeds of revs will go beyond 3GHz, as reported earlier on the INQ.

Barcelona has advantages on some fronts such as floating point, but some believe Intel, as also reported here, has Thurley in its pocket, in the future.

Shares, reckon Thomas Weisel, are currently "fairly valued". At press time, AMD is clocking at $14.17 a share. INTC is valued on NASDAQ at $22.19. µ