AMD delays 64-bit Athlon chip

The introduction of AMD's Athlon 64 processor for desktop PCs
has been pushed back from the spring to the fall.

"AMD, which had originally been expected to introduce its new generation of 64-bit chips in March or April, now plans to launch the 64-bit desktop processor in September, simultaneously with a notebook version of the chip, a company representative said. Earlier this month, the company said that it was reevaluating the launch date for the chip. The company has indicated that its priority is the new 64-bit Opteron processor for servers. That chip will be the keystone of AMD's 2003 strategy to push further into the business market and compete with Intel. Opteron, in keeping with the company's original launch date, is set to officially debut on April 22 in New York City.
After two and a half years of fairly flawless manufacturing, AMD found itself once again mired in delays in 2002. A number of its Athlon chips were subject to delays last year. Athlon 64, originally slated for the end of 2001, was set to come out at the end of last year, but in September the company pushed it back to the first quarter of 2003. Intel has been able to capitalize on many of these delays and regain market share by cutting prices and boosting performance of its chips.

Dirk Meyer, senior vice president of computational products at AMD, discounted that the company was having trouble finalizing the Athlon 64 architecture. New chips are always subject to delays, he noted, an assertion backed up by semiconductor history.

Meanwhile, AMD will try to keep desktop customers happy with a new Athlon XP chip. The chipmaker, as expected, is scheduled to introduce an Athlon XP 3000+ processor on Feb. 10. It plans to have a 3200+ chip by the middle of the year.

AMD plans to disclose the clock speed and pricing for the 3000+ chip at launch. The Athlon XP rating number indicates its performance in comparison with a previous version of the Athlon chip. However, the model number is also designed to reflect that the chip performs as well as or better than a corresponding Intel Pentium 4. The 3000+ chip, therefore, is equivalent to a 3.06GHz Pentium 4, AMD would assert.

The 3000+ chip will be AMD's first processor based on its new "Barton" core, which adds a larger 512KB cache and supports a faster bus. These features increase performance by holding larger amounts of data close to the processor core and speeding up the pathway for data transfer to and from the chip. That extra performance is what allowed AMD to boost the model's rating number.

While AMD's current line of Athlon XP chips will continue for some time, the company said that its priority will be its 64-bit chips. But there is such a thing as moving too quickly. By moving back the launch date for its Athlon 64, AMD says software developers will have more time to create software for the chip. The new September date will "allow us to better align the processor with the availability of 64-bit OSes and software applications," an AMD spokesperson said."

Credits to GameSpot