AMD lays out plans for six-core and 12-core chips

Computerworld - Advanced Micro Devices Inc. today announced that it plans to release a six-core chip next year and a 12-core chip in 2010.

Trying to pull itself out of its 2007 financial and PR slump, the chip maker early this year released several chips and a key chip set. Now, AMD is laying out a road map for its servers and workstations and outlining its plans for moving beyond quad-core processors.

Randy Allen, corporate vice president and general manager of AMD's server and workstation division, said today that the company's first 45-nanometer chip, code-named Shanghai, is still slated to ship in the second half of this year. If AMD hits that deadline, its quad-core debut in 45nm manufacturing will be about a year behind Intel Corp.'s move from 65nm to 45nm technology.

Similarly, AMD's updated road map puts it about a year behind rival Intel in terms of coming out with a six-core chip. Allen said the company is looking at shipping its six-core processor, code-named Istanbul, in the second half of 2009. Intel announced in March that it plans to release its six-core chip in the second half of this year.

"While these announcements are welcome news from AMD, they need to pick up the pace," said Dan Olds, an analyst at Gabriel Consulting Group Inc. "It's widely assumed that Intel will deliver six-core processors before the end of '08. If this is true, or even if Intel's schedule slips a quarter or so, AMD will be in the unenviable position of being almost a year behind Intel. It boils down to being 365 days late and many, many dollars short in terms of margin."

AMD's Allen said the native six-core is being aimed at customers who want more performance than a quad-core can provide but may not have the multithreaded software yet that could take advantage of eight-cores and up.

"We decided the six-core was really the sweet spot we wanted to attack," he added during a conference call. "We thought this was what was needed in terms of workloads."

But AMD is looking beyond even six cores and promising to release a 12-core chip, code-named Magny-Cours, in 2010.

Dean McCarron, an analyst at Mercury Research, noted that AMD, which has touted its native multicore chip technology for years, isn't going native with its upcoming 12-core processor. With its native approach, AMD has distinguished itself from Intel by, for example, building quad-core chips that have four processing cores on a single die of silicon. Intel, on the other hand, uses two dual-core processors and connects them so they work together.

However, with its upcoming 12-core chip, AMD plans on connecting two six-cores instead of building a single 12-core.

"That was sort of heresy with their messages before," said McCarron. "I think the economics are factoring in. They're in a tougher economic environment. Could they make a native 12-core? Sure. Could they do it in a cost-effective way, probably not and neither could their competitor."

Olds said there might be some grumbling in the industry since AMD is backing off its native multicore stance.

"There will be, but only because AMD made such a big deal about it when they introduced their quad-cores," he added. "They made their bed and will now have to toss and turn in it for a while."