AMD To Launch 45nm Chips Ahead Of Schedule

Advanced Micro Devices on Tuesday confirmed that its first 45-nanometer processors are in production and will be on shelves before the end of the year. The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based chip maker will first roll out 45nm, 75-watt server parts, code named Shanghai, and follow up with 55W and 105W chips in the first quarter of 2009, said AMD's new Server and Workstation Division GM Pat Patla.

Patla recently replaced former server chief Randy Allen, who was promoted in May to head up AMD's Computing Solutions Group in a major executive reshuffle that presaged Dirk Meyer's replacement of Hector Ruiz as CEO in July.

AMD's quad-core Shanghai processors are achieving 35 percent increases in both power efficiency and performance in clock-for-clock competition over the chip maker's current 65nm generation of quad-core server chips formerly code named Barcelona, Patla said in a press briefing held Tuesday in San Francisco.

The server chief said AMD had reviewed its engineering processes ahead of the Shanghai validation process in an effort to avoid silicon glitches like the TLB errata that slowed the ramp of its Barcelona and Phenom chips in the first half of 2008.