Replies to post #71303 on Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD)

[rlweitz]

Naffziger joined AMD in late February or early March, and will help start a Fort Collins design center.

I thought Intel had a design center in Fort Collins.


Edit:
Nevermind the rhetorical question. They do.

http://www.intel.com/community/colorado/

Colorado is also home to a design center in Fort Collins, which employs about 350.

[wbmw]

Re: Maybe more resources than you realize

You can throw all the resources you want at something, but after a point, it doesn't make it go any faster. Even if AMD did have the opportunity to staff 3 quad core projects in the same year (they didn't have this opportunity, and even though they may technically have the headcount now, it's too late), it's still a bad business decision to pay people to design a core, and then not use it long enough to amortise the costs.

Take Intel's DP server roadmap, for example. Dempsey got pushed out enough, and Woodcrest has been pulled in enough, that Dempsey will only get a quarter of sales before Woodcrest ramps to replace it. That makes much the costs that went into Dempsey development a waste. Of course, that depends on your perspective, since having a competitive server solution a quarter earlier may save Intel from additional market share losses. But even so, having two projects so closely together is not ideal.

Now consider AMD's proposed roadmap, assuming they would release all the cores currently under consideration. They would have the following products currently under development (and all of these would have different die plots, different layouts, etc to have to deal with, too):

2006 designs
- Dual core 90nm Opteron/Athlon full cache F-step
- Dual core 90nm Turion F-step
- Dual core 90nm Athlon half cache F-step
- Single core 90nm Sempron F-step

Late 2006 / Early 2007 designs
- Quad core 90nm Opteron F-step
- Dual core 65nm Opteron/Athlon full cache F-step
- Dual core 65nm Turion F-step

2007 designs
- Dual core 65nm Athlon half cache F-step
- Single core 65nm Sempron F-step
- Quad core 65nm Opteron F-step
- Dual core 65nm Opteron/Athlon full cache G-step
- Dual core 65nm Turion G-step
- Dual core 65nm Athlon half cache G-step
- Single core 65nm Sempron G-step
- Quad core 65nm Opteron/Athlon G-step

2008 and beyond designs
- Dual core 45nm Opteron/Athlon/Sempron H-step
- Dual core 45nm Turion H-step
- Quad core 45nm Opteron/Athlon H-step
- Single core Sempron H-step for value??
- Quad core Turion H-step for enthusiast market??
- Next gen mobile core
- Next gen server core

Just how many design teams do you think AMD has?

My guess is that AMD has cut quite a few of these projects, and are hoping to consolidate the rest in an attempt to address as much of the market as possible. That's just simply good business.

But if you want to believe they will offer all of the above, be my guest... but don't be disappointed when they don't do it. ;-)