<font color=darkgreen>AMD prepares for 64-bit battle(130nm!)
By Jack Robertson
Electronic Buyers' News
(08/25/00, 04:03:28 PM EST)
Advanced Micro Devices Inc. plans to begin mass production of its 64-bit Sledgehammer processor in 2002, a year after Intel Corp.'s 64-bit Itanium is expected to hit the market. But that doesn't worry AMD's president, Hector Ruiz.“Intel is launching an entirely new [64-bit] architecture. They need time to get people introduced to it,” he told EBN in a wide-ranging interview last week in his Sunnyvale, Calif., office.
Because the Itanium requires entirely new 64-bit programs, Ruiz believes it will take Intel a year to ramp up a sizable array of software from developers, and for customers to convert from a galaxy of existing X86 32-bit legacy programs required by Intel's new processor.
“The AMD Sledgehammer is an evolutionary approach, because it can run all existing X86 32-bit programs, as well as 64-bit programs. Customers can move up more easily to 64-bit programs with the Sledgehammer,” Ruiz said. AMD's 64-bit processor will start sampling in the fourth quarter of 2001, he added.
Ruiz disclosed that the Sledgehammer will use 0.13-micron design rules, but preferred not to say whether the company's 32-bit Athlon might move to 0.13-micron processing earlier. AMD's Fab 30 in Dresden, Germany, will be the first to produce the new 64-bit processor.
The Sledgehammer will also be the first AMD processor to use the company's new Lightning Fast Transfer I/O bus for connecting an array of I/O devices at extremely high speeds and large bandwidths.
Asked if the Sledgehammer will have some north-bridge controller functions integrated onto the chip, Ruiz replied, “We're not talking a lot about technical details now.” He also chose not to discuss the size of the Sledgehammer, except to say that “people are going to be pleasantly surprised.”
The Sledgehammer is aimed at the server market. Another 64-bit processor, code-named Clawhammer, will target the desktop market, he said.
In his interview with EBN, Ruiz discussed AMD's road map and strategy.
EBN: What is the road map for your new Athlon processor versions?
Ruiz: AMD will introduce five new processors between Nov. 15 and Feb. 15. This includes Mustang, which has a range of on-chip cache from 512 Kbytes to 2 Mbytes, depending on customer need. Mustang will be AMD's highest-performance entry into the workstation and server markets.
The Palomino [formerly known as the Corvette] will expand on-chip cache to 256 Kbytes using the Athlon core, and be available in both a desktop and mobile version. A new value-segment processor called Morgan [formerly the Camaro] will have 64-Kbyte on-chip cache and also come in separate desktop and mobile versions.
[Ruiz shrugged off the company's last-minute name changes for some of its processors. “General Motors didn't like some of our previous processor names,” he said, adding that AMD will now “ride horses that aren't trademarked.”]
EBN: AMD and Intel are in a high-performance-processor speed race. How fast does AMD intend to move to new speed grades?
Ruiz: We're shipping 1.1-GHz Athlons in volume. [He declined to divulge the size of these shipments.] This is a real part, not a poster child posing for leadership. On Aug. 28, our OEM customers will announce a range of PC products that can be delivered immediately using 1.1-GHz Athlons.
EBN: Your company has confirmed it's considering a Fab 35 to come on line in 2004, coincident with AMD's 35th anniversary. Will the new fab be located in Dresden next to Fab 30, where you have expansion space, and will you have a chip partner for the new fab?
Ruiz: We haven't said where a new fab might be located. Dresden is definitely a candidate. We've said the next AMD fab will be for 300-mm wafers. Since we estimate a 300-mm fab may cost $3 billion, we think it would be great if we could find a compatible partner.
EBN: Could that be Motorola?
Ruiz: Motorola would have to be a candidate to be considered.
EBN: In the interim, are you considering using any foundries to make processors to keep up with the increasing demand?
Ruiz: We owe it to ourselves to consider using foundries. We have no plans to announce.
EBN: There have been reports that AMD and Transmeta Corp. are discussing some type of technology exchange.
Ruiz: We talk to a lot of companies constantly about technology cooperation. Transmeta is just one of those companies. We have an interest in their technology on low power consumption for mobile computing.
We also want to discuss the Internet-access appliance market with them. Transmeta works with a lot of players and has done a lot of pioneering work. But there's so much fragmentation in this market that it's hard for us to put our arms around it.
We've created the Athlon core to be very flexible. The challenge is how to move that core into the [Internet-access] appliance market. If we decide to introduce an [Internet] appliance, we can move quickly.
EBN: Many analysts have said the wireless-phone market is slowing down, which could result in reduced demand for flash memory at a time when all the major suppliers are rapidly building up new capacity. Could this cause the current flash shortage to turn into an oversupply problem in the future?
Ruiz: We're absolutely sold out on flash for the rest of the year. Even with capacity being added, that's just going to keep us even with demand for the next three years. This year, global cell-phone shipments will reach 425 million units, and would've been higher except manufacturers couldn't get enough components.
The demand for flash has resulted in 100% bit growth annually for the last three to five years. I see bit growth continuing at a 100% rate annually for the next three years. And cell phones are only one area driving the booming flash market. There'll be explosive growth of flash in set-top boxes, automotive electronics, Internet-access devices, and in building out the Internet [server] infrastructure.
EBN: AMD was reported to be a leading candidate to supply the processor for Microsoft Corp.'s upcoming X-Box electronic-game console. At the last minute, Microsoft selected Intel's Pentium III processor. Is AMD still interested in pursuing the game-machine market, and is there opportunity left to get a design-in?
Ruiz: We would've loved to have been in the X-Box. I don't understand the reasons why the other one was chosen. But AMD is still intent on being part of a home appliance that can use our technology.
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