AMD delays Clawhammer, Barton

AMD yesterday published revised its processor roadmaps, showing later than expected launches for 64-bit Clawhammers and 32-bit Bartons.

Clawhammer chips are now, in AMD's phrase expected to "ship for revenue" Q1, 2003 - previously they were slated for shipping in Q4 this year. This means that Hammer-enabled systems should be available to the general public at the turn of Q1/Q2, 2003, AMD tells us(The server version - Opteron - is still supposed to launch in H1 next year. So no movement there.)

Similarly, Barton, the upcoming iteration of the AMD Athlon XP, is showing production slippage, with launch rescheduled from the second half of this year to Q1, 2003.

AMD is implementing the delays to install a faster 333MHz bus with Clawhammer, Barton, John Crank, a senior branding associate at the company, told CNET.

Which is all very well. But AMD has not shown great speed in shipping its latest desktop CPUs, the 2400+ and 2600+ AMD Athlons, 'launched' on 21 August, and hardware review sites are beginning to complain. PCs incorporating these parts will not hit the streets in volume until October, Tech-Report forecasts. So, the system builders don't need a new CPU for their pre-Christmas desktop lines coming out just a few weeks laster. Launching the new Barton towards the end of the year would undermine AMD's ability to sell existing stock.

As for Hammer, there may be greater design issues: AMDZone is pointing readers to this posting on its BBS, complete with caveats, of course. ®