AMD pushes back 90 nano process

COINCIDING WITH an analyst conference call it held yesterday, AMD simultaneously released a new roadmap with some fresh code names for us to conjure with.

The roadmap shows AMD being far more cautious about moving to 90 nanometer process technology than it has been there.

Barton is still there, straddling the first half of next year and in both XP and notebook versions, with the Opteron, the Athlon MP, also based on the Barton core, and the Clawhammer all sitting in the first half of 2003 as well.

Towards the end of the first half of next year, AMD will release a mobile Athlon based on the Clawhammer as well, at .13µ (micron).

The Duron will continue "as the market requires" which means, we suspect, it won't be required.

The exciting new codenames come in 2004, and are called Athens, San Diego, and Odessa. These are all 90 nanometer chips, the first being aimed at the one to four way server market, San Diego being a performance desktop, and Odessa a mobile chip. All claim to use SOI (silicon on insulator).

But this is a change from previous AMD roadmaps, which had showed 90 nanometer processes coming in 2003 - this process is probably harder to shift to than the firm suspected. µ

See Also
AMD new roadmap External (17.12 GMT -- seems to be a lot of pressure on the site, the roadmap is listed as "temporarily unavailable")