AMD on 90 nano target - so is Intel

WHEN WE WERE at the Consumer Electronics Show, the moles were few and far between, but if you dug hard enough, there were a few to be found that squeaked a bit when we asked them questions.

One of the least surprising bits is the AMD 90nm process. According to the people at CES, it is on schedule, on power budget, and on every other objective measure.

This should come as no surprise to anyone following the upcoming move, there has only been good news from AMD so far. It demoed working 90nm Opterons at Comdex almost two months ago, and still has six months to go. I expect good things here.

On the Intel front, news was a little harder to come by, but it was there. It seems the much reviled Intel 90nm process is back on track. Six months late, yes, but about to come on strong. The one chip that will shine the brightest here is Dothan. The circuit flaw that delayed it was mainly preventing high bin splits, not power usage. Several sources have told us that the power is back to the projected 21w max, and the upcoming 533FSB variants will consume only a bit more.

Those sources also say that Prescott is in the "better" category, but still not "good". Power usage is down substantially, and some of the problems plaguing the chip have been solved, but others have not. Expect minor improvements on February 2nd, and steady improvements over time, with features added as they are debugged. There is a lot here, and hopefully we will actually see it before Tejas supplants it. Time will tell. µ