AMD trumpets success of 90nm manufacturing transition

By Alun Williams

Posted on 17 Aug 2004 at 12:33

As well as a new high-end desktop replacement processor, AMD has announced progress on chip manufacturing processes.

'We promised 90 nanometer revenue shipments in the third quarter, and today we're delivering on that promise,' said Dirk Meyer, executive vice president of the Computation Products Group at AMD. 'The added capacity resulting from our efficient transition to 90 nanometer manufacturing enables AMD to better serve the growing ranks of AMD64 customers.'

The microprocessor rival to Intel is highlighting the success of its transition to a 90nm process (involving smaller circuits and the use of more transistors, which means more powerful chips). Producing initial sample chips is one thing, but ensuring a smooth transition to volume shipments on a new high-tech process is another matter. There are also manufacturing efficiencies to be gained, because reductions in overall chip sizes also allow more processors to be produced on the same sized wafer. This, claims AMD, results in increased production capacity.

Back in April we reported that 90nm Opterons had begun to be processed at AMD's new manufacturing plant in Germany - AMD rolls out 90nm Opterons from its Dresden fab. Now, the company is reporting volume shipments of low-power 90nm Mobile AMD Athlon 64 processors - aka 'Oakville' - for thin and light notebooks.

The company said the transition to 90nm keeps it on track for delivering 90nm dual-core products 'mid-next year'.

'AMD's combined leadership in processor design, submicron technologies and fab automation will allow us to deliver dual core 64-bit processors that meet customer performance and power requirements throughout 2005 and beyond,' claimed Fred Weber, chief technology officer at AMD.

The company states that the AMD64 platform was designed from the ground-up for multi-core products, with features such as Direct Connect Architecture suiting multi-core implementation. Back in June, it announced the completion of an x86 dual-core processor design for 64-bit computing - AMD plots a 64-bit multi-core processor future.

You can find the official AMD roadmap here. It specifies the delivery of 90nm 'Oakville' processors for low voltage Mobile Athlon 64s, the 90nm 'Winchester' for the desktop Athlon 64, and 'Venus', 'Troy' and 'Athens' for single, two-way and eight-way Opteron server processors.