jmke

If you have been following the CPU industry this Spring you will have noticed that 90nm has not come easy. Intel has clearly been unable to deliver 90nm parts in volume at 3.2GHz, and there has been no availability at 3.4GHz or 3.6GHz.

Intel is not the only company falling to the 90nm block. IBM has also had issues which have reportedly caused Apple problems with Xserve production. Even more surprisingly it has led to Apple having to not only liquid cool, but also heatpipe cool their new PowerMac G5 2.5GHz workstation. Even this dual cooled solution is not yet available, and paper launched as Intel's flagship CPUs have been for 1/3 of a year.

With IBM and Intel having difficulty at 90nm speculation has begun to increase about AMD possibly also falling victim. AMD now has 4 CPUs at the 2.4GHz mark at 130nm, and they have announced plans for 90nm part production this quarter with shipments for revenue in Q3. Rumors are circulating, but AMD has responded vehemently denying any issues at 90nm, and backing their production plans for their AMD64 line. AMD's Damon Muzny has provided us with the following statement by telephone.

Our transition to 90nm for AMD64 processors is on track. We are having strong yields, we are having excellent power consumption, heat dissipation is is excellent as well. We will initiate volume 90nm production in the 2nd quarter, and we expect to deliver products for revenue in the 3rd quarter of 04. So we are on track. The current 130nm AMD Athlon 64 FX core is capable of scaling for performance needs for customers for that segment for the remainder of the year.

So we clearly have AMD on record stating that they are experiencing none of
the problems their competitor Intel, and partner IBM are being tested by.
With the 3rd quarter just days away we should soon see 90nm review samples
coming perhaps in coordination with the launch of PCI Express chipsets from VIA and Nvidia. If AMD indeed has no issues with power consumption or dissipating heat then good yields could carry them to a strong 2nd half that
could lead to market share gains at the expense of Intel.

http://www.amdzone.com/modules.php?o...icle&sid= 766

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