AMD Will Skip Two 65nm Phenom Chips Altogether

Sounds like a smart business move!

they have a quad core that only eats up 65w. i wonder how much power the 45nm quad will eat

They need 45nm Quads on the market asap. Phenom's don't have a reputation for overclocking for one thing, and for another it means they're cheaper.

phenoms are ok, a 9850be can compete with intel (though it does loose a bit when overclocked). phenoms (b3) are at least worthy competition. but yeah 45nm is needed asap.

News:

According to Digitimes, AMD isn't going to bother releasing two 65 nanometer scale dual core chips they had in the development pipeline.

AMD originally planned to launch two 65nm dual-core Phenom processors codenamed Kuma for the desktop PC market in May or June this year, however the company has recently suspended the plans and will let its Athlon X2 5600B processor cover the market until the company enters 45nm production, according to sources at motherboard makers.

AMD realizes they must get down to the 45nm scale architecture to effectively compete with Intel, whose 45nm Penryns have been out for a while now. Releasing more 65nm chips would be playing musical chairs with more contestants and fewer chairs. AMD's 45nm Deneb processors have already been demonstrated, and  AMD will concentrate on getting them to market this year.

AMD is disputing an earlier report (here) that claimed the company had cancelled several processors. AMD says there are no problems and that it is on track to deliver the dual-core Kuma.

"The speculation is completely untrue," said AMD spokesman Jake Whitman. "We're still on track to launch a dual-core--code-named Kuma--part in the second half of '08. It will be 65 nanometers, still be based on the Star's core. So, that's coming." He also disassociated Kuma from Phenom, as speculated in some articles. "We have never said anywhere along the lines that Kuma was somehow associated with Phenom," he said. "Dual-core Phenom? I've never seen that on a road map."

Hi amdcrankitup-
Thanks for reading and commenting. The report seems to have mixed up some nomenclature, but it's probably accurate. It did say:

"AMD representatives said the company is still on track to launch a Kuma codenamed desktop CPU core in second half 2008."

The AMD spokesman seems to be saying that they had no intention of naming the chips in question "Kuma." The two 65nm Phenom chips being developed appear to be shelved. It's interesting that the info came not from AMD but from mobo manufacturers. They'd probably be the first to know if AMD discontinued a portion of a chipline.

Agreed with everyone else -- in fact if AMD really wanted to get back into the hard mix of things they should devote their time and energy into a 30nm processor (just for bragging rights) and then work on the efficiency factor; being sorta the opposite of intel's release plans