Microprocessor and graphics processor chip maker AMD let slip that its new Shanghai version of the Opteron processor is actually ahead of schedule for production. Samples are available now for testing and it may begin appearing on servers as early as Q4 of this year.
AMD was doing well in its efforts to become a true rival to Intel until the Barcelona version of Opteron ran into problems. It came out over a year late. It had some merits: the four core version had all four cores on a single chip. Intel's four-core Xeon server processor actually was two two-core chips packaged together, which resulted in a variety of performance issues.
The Shanghai Opterons will also have four cores, but they will be on a 45nm process enabling them to have larger internal memories (caches) and other acclerators that were not present in the Barcelona versions, which were done with a 65nm process.
In looking at Q3 2008 results, which will be released October 16, we will be seeing the results of revenues from the current generation of Opteron processors. This generation has its merits, and may have sold well into energy conscious server customers. But if there is a surpise bump it will be from the recently reinvigorated ATI graphics unit, which came out with highly acclaimed products that may have sold very well in Q3. Notebook CPU and graphics chips, which were once a weakness for AMD, also should be showing a strengthening trend.
So if Q3 was better than expected, and Shanghai starts shipping in Q4, and the economy does not melt down, AMD investors will have something to cheer about for the first time since 2005. Given the almost vanishingly low current market capitalization for AMD, that might generate quite a pop.
Then again, I am a long-term investor in AMD, so this analysis could just be wishful thinking.
For more data see my AMD page and www.amd.com
For the technical news article on Shanghai see AMD says new 'Shanghai' chip is ready to go by Brooke Crothers at CNET.
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