AMD announces 45nm Opterons, and a new platform supporting a dozen cores

Johnathan Rush 8 May, 2008 at 1:43pm ET Article published in Tech

Photo by AMD

If you squint you can see the nanometers. 45 of them.

AMD has announced new Opteron chips (codenamed Shanghai) based on a 45 nm process, and quad core chips should be available early next year. In the later half of 2009, six core chips will materialize. Both will land on Socket F; here’s hoping that motherboard and chipset compatibility will be solid. No matter the core count, the shrunken process should yield better performance and efficiency.

Enjoy your current chip platforms while you can, because in 2010, AMD will switch to a completely new platform codenamed Maranello supporting new six core and twelve core chips. These will still be 45 nm chips, while Intel is expected to beat AMD to the 32 nm process sometime in late 2009. AMD is skipping over eight core designs entirely, which means Intel will probably have the largest core count with the Nehalem architecture for around a year.

Comments

1. 
   8 May 2008 ~ 2:17pm GHoosdum Is AMD ever going to catch up again? Or did Intel learn its lesson from the Netburst fiasco and they'll never again leave the door open?
2. 
   8 May 2008 ~ 4:45pm Thrax AMD is doomed through 2010, if Intel delivers, and given that there are Nehalems already floating around, I think Intel is delivering.
3. 
   8 May 2008 ~ 5:41pm Qeldroma

   Thrax wrote:

   AMD is doomed through 2010, if Intel delivers, and given that there are Nehalems already floating around, I think Intel is delivering.

   
   That's "if". Intel may re-invent Netbust with a new architecture too.
4. 
   8 May 2008 ~ 6:03pm Thrax Early sample Nehalems are benchmarking 20-35% faster than today's Penryns. Not likely.
5. 
   9 May 2008 ~ 8:04am Qeldroma Sorry if that sounds all too familiar- like the 40% better than Conroe AMD's Barcelona was supposed to be.
   
   I'll believe it when the benchmarks are done with CPUs that hit the street.