SUNNYVALE, Calif. — Advanced Micro Devices Inc. will delay the release of its Hammer processor family by two to six months, which could push their release to the second half of 2002 under a worst-case scenario.
Initially scheduled for introduction in the first half of 2001, the parts include the PC-centric Clawhammer and a family member dubbed Sledgehammer, which is optimized for four- and eight-processor server systems. The delay stems from AMD's plan to align the processor family with silicon-on-insulator process technology.
"We wanted to clearly align SOI technology with Hammer from the very beginning," an AMD spokesman said. "Previously, the first part was not going to be on SOI, but we've revised our road map. Our SOI offerings will be in the mobile space all the way up to the server space."
AMD expects the delay to be short-lived, the spokesman said. "It's early second half, not late second half," he said. The delay looks to extend the life of AMD's Athlon processor line into 2003, whereas previous road maps had Athlon being phased out a few months earlier. The AMD spokesman would not say which AMD fabs will manufacture the parts.
The Hammer series looks to process data in 64-bit sizes and has AMD targeting servers as a growing opportunity beyond the PC desktop platform. Just two weeks ago, NEC said it will be using a 1.33-GHz Athlon processor for a server appliance, a relatively untapped segment for AMD.
Aside from servers, the move to SOI also looks to grow AMD's business away from the desktop PC area to include a sharper focus on the mobile processor segment. A large part of SOI's charm lies in lower power consumption at higher frequencies, which suits it for the notebook segment.
Licensed from IBM Microelectronics, the SOI technology that will be used by AMD adds a layer of oxide between silicon layers, gating previously lost energy. Proponents of the process technology believe that reclaimed energy adds performance to transistors while consuming less power. The technology aims to squeeze more life out of the CMOS process, with the promise of 20 to 30 percent performance gains.
But Intel Corp., usually a front-runner of process technologies, has been skeptical as to the technology's legs, saying publicly the power advantages achieved through SOI drop off as process geometries shrink.
