The previous article explained how AMD’s Phenom II may make some inroads as Intel fans hesitate to choose which of Intel’s new sockets to buy over the course of 2009. But with Intel already crossing the Sandy Bridge (the codname for the architecture to succeed Core) in the second half of 2010, things don’t seem as positive for AMD come the end of the decade.
By the end of 2009, Intel will have its new Core architecture well established in the enthusiast market, will be finding it’s way into the hands of performance (the level between enthusiast and mainstream, below that is termed value) users.
AMD road maps (the one on the right is from a presentation at their Financial Analyst Day, November 13th) don’t show anything for the desktop except no more Phenom tweaking until 2011, when the Bulldozer core (last supposed to appear in ’09 on a now defunct CPU codenamed Shrike) is slated for launch. This, at 32nm in Orochi, Llano, and Ontario CPUs for enthusiast, mainstream and netbook markets, respectively.
The time machine feature went off unexpectedly: apparently now it won’t be seen until 2011. The 45nm CPUs line that was to use the Bulldozer core, set to appear in 2009 last we heard of it, and codenamed Shrike, has shrunk to invisibility and can no longer be found.
Not much is known about Bulldozer, and it’s impossible to tell whether it will be ready to go on time; let alone whether it will live up to its name and crush anything in front of it; or live up to its name and be really slow, use a lot of power, and need a lot of special care and maintenance. One thing is for sure; we’ll be waiting for a while to find out.
Fusion, AMDs brand for integrated graphics on the CPU, was also pushed out to 2011, when it should appear on Llano and Ontario.