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AMD is hitting new heights of achievement but that's still not enough to keep it from getting smoked by a much faster rival.
The company is set to launch on Thursday its much-awaited 45-nanometer quad core processor for servers, though the release comes months after its rival Intel put out a comparable product. Codenamed Shanghai, this is AMD's first processor to use the smaller, faster 45-nm technology instead of older 65nm technology.
Meanwhile, Intel is planning to release its latest 45-nm chips for the desktop on Monday, codenamed Nehalem and to be known officially as Core i7. AMD says it won't have a comparable desktop chip until next year.
In the carefully-orchestrated roadmaps used by semiconductor companies, chips intended for use in servers typically precede desktop and notebook processors by several months.
"I think of Shanghai as the last dance of the company," says Patrick Wang, an analyst with brokerage and research firm Wedbush Morgan. "Shanghai is significant because AMD needs it to get back into the game."
For now, all eyes are on the launch of the Shanghai chips from AMD. The chips mark AMD's debut in the 45-nanometer process technology and are seen as a bid to move forward after the disastrous performance of its previous Barcelona chips, which were 65-nm quad-core processors.
Barcelona was widely faulted for its technical glitches that led to multiple delays in its launch and its high pricing. The combination, some say, helped Intel gain market share at AMD's expense.
The latest 45-nm quad core Opteron processor will have increased power efficiency, fit easily into the same socket as Barcelona allowing for "non-disruptive" upgrades and is priced competitively, says Brent Kerby, senior product marketing manager for server and workstations for AMD.
"Shanghai is looking really good and we delivered it three months ahead of our planned schedule," he says.
AMD's new chip seems impressive, say analysts, and would be groundbreaking except for the fact that Intel has had similar chips in the market for months. Intel's quad-core 45-nm server processor, called Harpertown (and officially known as Xeon) was available around the same time as AMD launched its 65-nm processor Barcelona.
"Barcelona was completely botched in terms of execution and was failure on many fronts--technology, pricing and market share," says Wang. "The reason that AMD is in such dire financial situation is because of the Barcelona."
Now Shanghai, hopes AMD, will change all that.
"With Barcelona we had a completely new redesign," says AMD's Kerby. "We have taken on the learnings and capabilities from Barcelona and improved on it for Shanghai."
Amd_roadmap_2_2 AMD is also at least six months behind Intel when it comes to six-core processors, says PC analyst Shane Rau with research firm IDC. AMD plans to introduce a six-core processor called Istanbul mid-2009.
But Intel already has its six-core chip called Dunnington available for the last few weeks. Still AMD has some breathing space there. Just about 5% of Intel's shipments in the third quarter were Dunnington, giving AMD some time to catch up.
Shanghai may have helped AMD move closer to Intel in terms of comparable technology for server processors. But on the desktop side, the company still has an uphill climb.
AMD's 45-nm desktop chip, codenamed Deneb, is likely to launch early next year. That means Intel's core i7 processors will have a comfortable lead over its rival.
"Intel's going to be the only game in town for a while for the latest in desktop processors," says Wang.
With AMD and Intel locked in yet another fierce battle, here's a breakdown of how the two company's latest releases stack up.
AMD Learns Its Lessons With Shanghai
AMD says it did the "heavy lifting" for Barcelona and has since streamlined its processes to put out a next generation processor faster.
Its latest 45-nm quad-core processors offers significantly higher CPU clock frequencies with the same power consumption as earlier generations.
"What these specs mean is it will be a higher performing processor and offer better price performance per watt," says Rau.
Shanghai's compatibility with sockets designed for Barcelona means OEMs can buy it and drop it in to their existing designs for servers and motherboards. That helps reduce costs for them and makes it easier to upgrade, says Rau.
The chips also increases the size of the Level 3 cache by 200%, to 6 MB, which helps speed memory-intensive applications like virtualization, databases and Java apps, says AMD.
The processors also draw up to 35% less power at idle compared to the previous generation while delivering up to 35% more performance, says the company.
"AMD is going to be successful in applications that are memory and floating point intensive, which means in databases and scientific applications," says Wang.
Intel Races Ahead to Desktops
AT A GLANCE: Intel core i7
Faster Processor: Almost four to six times faster than Intel's current platform.
Greater power efficiency: Allows the processor to switch off power to an idle or unused core.
Integrated memory controller: Increases bandwidth directly available to the processor, reducing lag time before a CPU can begin executing the next instruction.
Simultaneous multi-threading: Used in some Pentium and Xeon processors it makes a comeback. Allows for double the number of threads to be run simultaneously by each processor boosting performance
The first three Core i7 chips will be quad-core and have clock speeds of 2.66GHz, 2.93GHz, and 3.20GHz and integrated memory controller.
Codenamed Bloomfield and officially named Core i7, Intel's 45-nm desktop processors are targeted at largely at gaming PCs but Intel plans to have versions ready for business users in the next few weeks.
The 65-nm vs. 45-nm difference is important because on a macro-level it is one of the factors that affects pricing, say analysts.
"When Intel can manufacture in 45-nm earlier than AMD it can possibly have a cost advantage, which can be passed on to users," says Rau. "A 65-nm die is more expensive to cast than a 45-nm one."
For Intel, that means more than just being a generation ahead of AMD: It means that Intel will be enjoying fatter margins while AMD is still struggling to catch up. In the end, that could translate into enough market share to cripple AMD for good
