AMD Unveils Ambitious Chip Plans
SAN FRANCISCO -- While the Street is rife with speculation that
Advanced Micro Devices
(AMD) - Get Report
may split into multiple companies, the struggling chipmaker is outlining plans for products intended to keep AMD in the fight for several years to come.
On Wednesday AMD announced forthcoming versions of its most powerful and lucrative microprocessors designed for server computers, unveiling for the first time details of a 12-core chip.
The Sunnyale, Calif., company fleshed out its so-called product roadmap in a meeting with journalists, offering a first peak at some of the chips under development.
AMD server and workstation manager Randy Allen said the company's existing server processor, Barcelona, has commitments to be used by all the top server makers including
Dell
(DELL) - Get Report
and
Hewlett-Packard
(HPQ) - Get Report
-- following delays in availability because of a bug -- and that demand and supply for the chip would reach a balanced level towards the end of the current quarter.
He reiterated that Shanghai, AMD's next version of the chip, which features smaller, 45-nanometer transistors, remains on track to begin production in late 2008.
AMD rival
Intel
(INTC) - Get Report
has been producing chips with 45 nanometer circuits since October. Intel is due to release its own next-generation processor, code-named Nehalem, in the second half of 2008, as well as a processor with 6-cores during that time.
On Wednesday, AMD added a 6-core chip to its line-up, slated for release in the second half of 2009.
And AMD said its server products will undergo a major transition in the first half of 2010, when the company releases new 6-core and 12-core processors, dubbed Sao Paolo and Magny Cours, respectively.
The processors will still be built with 45-nanometer circuits, and are designed to work with the newer generation of DDR3 memory, AMD said.
Of course the announcements come at a time when AMD is considering overhauling its business model, and moving to an asset-light strategy in which a greater portion of the company's chips are manufactured by third parties.
Earlier this week, rumors surfaced that AMD might use its annual shareholder meeting on Thursday to announce
, with one of the new entities outsourcing all chip fabrication.
AMD's Allen said he had nothing to add to what AMD has previously said about the progress of its move to an asset-light business model. But he said that the asset-light strategy is not expected to have any effect on the line-up of server processors announced Wednesday.
Shares of AMD were off 3 cents at $6.88 in extended trading Wednesday.