News AMD to launch faster Athlon 64 X2?

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2007/07/23/amd_to_launch_faster_athlon_64_x2/1

AMD is said to be readying the launch of a new flagship dual-core processor before Phenom arrives later in the year.

 

I think you meant to say "processor", unless it were a reference to the fabrication. Sayonara K8.

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RIP

 

Is it only me or is AMD ruining everything lately ? ATI is the best example I can find. Ever since they bought ATI ,they've been going downhill.

Releasing a new processor night wouldn't help them at all. The revenue wouldn't even equal the cost and a non permanent architecture wouldn't make them more friends with companies such as HP or Dell or whatever

 

To be fair, ATI's track record for releasing products on time was shaky way before AMD bought them out..

- x1800 series anyone?

 

I'm being very generous here, but I'm making a connection between development for the Xbox360 VPU with ATi's recent shakiness. nVidia had made a similar fumble when they were contracted for the first Xbox (conveniently during the awful FX generation). I was/am a hugely dedicated ATi user--I refuse to ever plug an nVidia PCB into my machine--but my faith has been stretched very thin.

 

I know but it seems to be worse than ever, no ?

 

think they need to slow down a bit and stop playing catchup and just produce the killer hardware we know they can

 

The big trouble they have is keeping up intel's run of luck with the pricing of their CPUs. AMD is pretty smart but they seem to have trouble actually putting out products (much like IBM). When Phenom arrives, they need a new FAB with extremely high output ratios to keep costs low and catch up to intel who made a huge gain after recovering from the nightmare that was NetBurst and Prescott.

 

Probably just another result of manufacturing yields coming up a little and/or chips being clocked a bit higher and sold at a bit higher price point as a result, not really anything major or to get worked up about.

 

Is this not the same thing Intel is doing?

 

You mean like nVidia's was at one time? Swings and roundabouts, man, swings and roundabouts.

 

Not quite, intel might be doing it to some extent but they are also changing up the specifics of the chips (and adding quad core right ?) this new amd chip and the last one will be coming out of the very same manufacturing process that produces the rest, its just they are getting slightly higher quality chips out of it as the processes improve, and thus slapping a bigger name and price tag on it.

The engineering teams will all/mostly be busy beavering away on phenom/barcelona and its production.

Basically I get a little irritated when I see people shouting and screaming and proclaiming doom because AMD is releasing these as if it was AMD's idea of improvement and competition, when in reality its almost an afterthought deal - unrelated really to the direction the company is working towards. Doesn't really hurt the shareprice and sales if they close the performance gap half a percent either I'm sure.