By Sharon Gaudin
May 7, 2008

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. today announced that it plans to release a six-core chip next year and a 12-core chip in 2010. Trying to pull itself out of its 2007 financial and PR slump, the chip maker early this year released several chips and a key chip set. Now, AMD is laying out a road map for its servers and workstations and outlining its plans for moving beyond quad-core processors.

Randy Allen, corporate vice president and general manager of AMD's server and workstation division, said today that the company's first 45-nanometer chip, code-named Shanghai, is still slated to ship in the second half of this year. If AMD hits that deadline, its quad-core debut in 45nm manufacturing will be about a year behind Intel Corp.'s move from 65nm to 45nm technology.

Similarly, AMD's updated road map puts it about a year behind rival Intel in terms of coming out with a six-core chip. Allen said the company is looking at shipping its six-core processor, code-named Istanbul, in the second half of 2009. Intel announced in March that it plans to release its six-core chip in the second half of this year.

"While these announcements are welcome news from AMD, they need to pick up the pace," said Dan Olds, an analyst at Gabriel Consulting Group Inc. "It's widely assumed that Intel will deliver six-core processors before the end of '08. If this is true, or even if Intel's schedule slips a quarter or so, AMD will be in the unenviable position of being almost a year behind Intel. It boils down to being 365 days late and many, many dollars short in terms of margin."