Japanese Web site PC Watch has posted what it claims is the latest iteration of AMD's roadmap.

Essentially, AMD will launch the Barton-based Athlon XP with 512KB of L2 cache and a 400MHz FSB late April/early May. Performance ratings will range to at least 3200+.

AMD has already announced it will launch the 64-bit Opteron (aka Sledgehammer on 22 April). Barton-based uni- and dual-processor Athlon MPs will a appear sooner: we should see them before the end of March, the roadmap suggests.

Late Q2 should see the arrival of Thorton, the successor to the Duron's Morgan core. Thorton appears to be a renamed Throughbred, sporting as it does 256KB of L2 cache and 0.13 micron fabrication.

It may not be a long-lived upgrade to Morgan - today's Barton-based 333MHz FSB Athlon XP will slide into Duron territory in Q4.

By then the Athlon 64 will have arrived - September, we hear; and so do others, including PC Watch. Mid-Q4 should see the launch of a mid-range Athlon 64, codenamed Paris, with a mere 256KB of L2 on board. It will supersede the 3200+ Barton.

Come 2004 and Paris will evolve into a 90nm part possibly codenamed Victoria - PC Watch isn't sure. By then Clawhammer, the first Athlon 64, will also have shrunk using a 90nm process to become San Diego. The 90nm uni- to eight-way Opteron, codenamed Athens, will ship in the same timeframe.

PC Watch's roadmap says nothing about how soon Duron will go 64-bit. ®

Related Link

PC Watch's AMD article (Japanese - copy the link to translate at Babelfish)