Barcelona Fixed, 45 nm To Ramp In H2

TG Daily reports AMD quad-core have been fixed and also that AMD's 45nm CPU to roll out in the second half of this year.

AMD chief executive officer Hector Ruiz today told analysts that the company has fixed a bug that severely impacted the launch of the company’s Opteron and Phenom quad-core processors. According to Ruiz, the bug has been fixed and the fixed B3 stepping CPU “has left the fab”.

Production volume of Barcelona and Phenom quad-core will be about double of the “nearly 400,000 units” that were manufactured during Q4, CFO Bob Rivet noted. On the server side, AMD will focus to get “mid-band power, high volume” quad-core Opterons into the market with higher speeds, 2.5 GHz and above, being scheduled for a Q2 introduction. As previously reported, the higher speed Phenoms will also have to wait: AMD will roll out triple-core Phenoms and 65-watt (low power) quad-core CPUs during Q1. “Higher speeds will follow in Q2”, Meyer stated.

There also was some positive news on the company’s 45 nm progress. Ruiz said that AMD that 45 nm Opterons have been produced and he is “pleased” with the initial result. However, he said that the company is targeting a H2 ramp of the 45 nm generation, which indicates that AMD will miss the originally promised mid-2008 launch of the processors. This statement also contradicts Meyer’s statement from the Q3 2007 earnings call that AMD would begin ramping 45 nm CPUs in H1 2008.