AMD's 2010-2011 Roadmaps

AMD is... "ahead of schedule".

What do you think when you see "Ahead of schedule" in all slides of a roadmap presentation?


I think they know they're pretty late on the CPU front.
The six-core processor, codenamed "Thuban", also known as Phenom II X6, is ahead of schedule? The graphics cards are, AMD is the first to market; but ahead of schedule on a desktop version of a server CPU launched 5 months ago? I call that late.
Sure, the hexa-core will still be ahead of schedule for most desktop applications and users - just not ahead of schedule against Intel, which also has a faster micro architecture. The Core i9 is supposed to come out ahead of the Phenom II X6, not ahead. While AMD managed to tackle Intel on the server side by releasing "Istanbul" well ahead of schedule, on the desktop/workstation market, it doesn't look so good: they're late and will be slower. In the servers, "Istanbul" managed to strike a balance: high compute benefited AMD, high bandwidth requirements favored "Nehalem" - you didn't have a clear winner, especially with AMD's aggressive pricing.

Pretty interesting is the fact that AMD will apparently be releasing "Bulldozer" micro architecture based CPUs for the AM3 socket:


While we still don't know which socket the first "Fusion" based processor but it features the much anticipated APU(advanced processing unit) that will both serve as GPU and accelerator. The APU is very late to the party and AMD has started to suffer when it comes to integrated graphics performance. AMD needs to move the graphics core closer to the CPU pronto - Intel has been playing catch up and "Clarkdale" will released it around early January, featuring an integrated GPU with plenty of bandwidth and performance. This could be the turning point in Intel integrated graphics.
Given the current desktop market, it would make more sense to aim the "Fusion" based processor at the notebook segment first - two sockets for the same market usually doesn't work well, especially when AMD has less than 20% market share. Remember socket 754?
AM3 compatibility are very good news but, unfortunately, I fear for the worse.


AMD announced they will be updating the APU every year, on a similar fashion to Intel's "new architecture on one year, shrink in the other", also known as "tick-tock" strategy.
The plan seems promising and important if GPGPU will ever really take it's place in mainstream computing. This is the only non-"ahead of schedule" slide which actually seems well ahead of Intel's plans.

Full roadmap @ Anandtech