Chicago (IL) - AMD will keep to its promise to ship its first 65 nm processors by the end of this year. The limited supply of the new chip generation, code-named "Brisbane", will be flanked by 90 nm dual-core CPUs with increased clock speed and more L2 cache: Three new processors, led by the Athlon 64 X2 6000+, will bring AMD closer to the performance of Intel's Core 2 Duo.
A new roadmap that was presented to European resellers and that was published by German website Planet 3D Now, confirms that AMD intends to make the jump to 65 nm before the end of the year. According to the documents, AMD will be launching its 65 nm Brisbane core in December as the foundation for dual-core processors with more performance in 2007.
Brisbane will be limited to the X2 5000+, 4800+, 4400+ and 4000+ versions, all of which will be rated at a 65 watt power envelope. At least in the case of the 5000+ version, which so far has been rated at 89 watts, the new technology indicates that AMD will be able to increase the clock speed of 65 nm processors while maintaining current power consumption levels.
While AMD intends to ship 90% of its processors as 65 nm versions by the end of 2007, 90 nm processors with "Windsor" core will retain their status of AMD's fastest AMD processors in the beginning of the year. According to the roadmap, AMD will launch three new chips in Q4 of this year. The 5400+ (2.8 GHz, 1 MB L2 cache) will surface in November, while the 5600+ (2.8 GHz, 2 MB L2 cache) and 6000+ (3.0 GHz, 2 MB L2 cache) are expected to be introduced in November.
The roadmap does not provide launch information for AMD's 4x4 platform which will allow system builders to integrate two dual-core processors on one motherboard. However, industry sources indicated that the platform is on track to launch within a few weeks.
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