AMD will shift to a fresh naming scheme
CHIP DESIGN OUTFIT AMD's plans to take the fight to Intel next year are beginning to take form, as additional information is starting to leak through the internet sieve.
The company is executing an ambitious plan to ramp to 32nm in just under one year's time.
According to information published at Xbit Labs, AMD is betting on moving its entire crop of 45nm processors - all K10 derivatives - to 32nm with Bulldozer. With this, the company plans on discontinuing its now-venerable lines of Phenom II, Athlon II and Sempron processors.
AMD's next desktop naming scheme will break down its CPUs and APUs into three families - the FX-Series, A-Series and E-Series. The FX-Series will be Bulldozer and its derivatives, targeting high-end machines. A-Series - the current Llano chips - will cover mainstream computing, and the E-Series processors will be for low-power, small computers.
Bulldozer will see a first crop of CPUs released in Q4 2011, which will include four Bulldozer SKUs - tentatively FX-8100, FX-6100, FX-4100 and an unlocked FX-8150P - with a refresh in Q1 2012 that will expand the line-up with higher speed bins and lower power envelopes, which will go hand in hand with maturing the fab process and fleshing out product and price point segmentation.
Quoting "people with knowledge of AMD's plans", Xbit Labs further stated that from the end of 201, AMD will no longer be taking orders for K10 processors - Phenom II, Athlon II and Sempron - but will maintain shipments for a couple of quarters. This will see a major decline in AM3-processor share, from the current 40-45 percent to just 15 percent, in late Q4 2011. Guesstimates place what will then be the ubiquitous Llano designs at 60 percent of AMD's shipments while FX-Series and E-Series chips will have around 20 percent each.
These numbers sound quite speculative, but they do add up to what we've been seeing lately as AMD motherboard vendors have been gearing up quite strongly for the Bulldozer launch.
Through this highly ambitious plan - and that might be an understatement - from 1 July 2011 through 30 June 2012 the company will cease selling any of its familiar desktop brand names. While no information is available on the server segment naming schemes, the grapevine has been chirping "Opteron FX".
We believe the now fab-less AMD will have the nimbleness to pull this off, as the company only needs to negotiate with its foundry partners and shift production a node forward, as the retooling has already taken place. However, dropping solid brand names entirely and switching to a new naming scheme might require some very astute and well-focused channel and retail marketing.
The Inquirer - Computer hardware news and downloads.
The company is executing an ambitious plan to ramp to 32nm in just under one year's time.
According to information published at Xbit Labs, AMD is betting on moving its entire crop of 45nm processors - all K10 derivatives - to 32nm with Bulldozer. With this, the company plans on discontinuing its now-venerable lines of Phenom II, Athlon II and Sempron processors.
AMD's next desktop naming scheme will break down its CPUs and APUs into three families - the FX-Series, A-Series and E-Series. The FX-Series will be Bulldozer and its derivatives, targeting high-end machines. A-Series - the current Llano chips - will cover mainstream computing, and the E-Series processors will be for low-power, small computers.
Bulldozer will see a first crop of CPUs released in Q4 2011, which will include four Bulldozer SKUs - tentatively FX-8100, FX-6100, FX-4100 and an unlocked FX-8150P - with a refresh in Q1 2012 that will expand the line-up with higher speed bins and lower power envelopes, which will go hand in hand with maturing the fab process and fleshing out product and price point segmentation.
Quoting "people with knowledge of AMD's plans", Xbit Labs further stated that from the end of 201, AMD will no longer be taking orders for K10 processors - Phenom II, Athlon II and Sempron - but will maintain shipments for a couple of quarters. This will see a major decline in AM3-processor share, from the current 40-45 percent to just 15 percent, in late Q4 2011. Guesstimates place what will then be the ubiquitous Llano designs at 60 percent of AMD's shipments while FX-Series and E-Series chips will have around 20 percent each.
These numbers sound quite speculative, but they do add up to what we've been seeing lately as AMD motherboard vendors have been gearing up quite strongly for the Bulldozer launch.
Through this highly ambitious plan - and that might be an understatement - from 1 July 2011 through 30 June 2012 the company will cease selling any of its familiar desktop brand names. While no information is available on the server segment naming schemes, the grapevine has been chirping "Opteron FX".
We believe the now fab-less AMD will have the nimbleness to pull this off, as the company only needs to negotiate with its foundry partners and shift production a node forward, as the retooling has already taken place. However, dropping solid brand names entirely and switching to a new naming scheme might require some very astute and well-focused channel and retail marketing.
The Inquirer - Computer hardware news and downloads.
