This article is more than 1 year old

AMD maps out path to HT 3, DDR 3, DirectX 10

Processor and chipset plan made public

Desktop Roadmap AMD yesterday spilled the beans on its processor plans for the next two years, at a stroke confirming much of the info that has leaked out of the company and onto the web this year. On the desktop, the future is HyperTransport 3 and DDR 3. Chipsets will not shift to DirectX 10 until late 2007.

The key transition point, however, will come mid-2007. AMD has already said that's when its quad-core desktop CPUs will debut alongside new dual-core chips that, like the quadies, used HyperTransport 3 and incorporate Level 3 cache shared between the cores - 2MB of it, according to past leaks.

These two processor families - quad-core and dual-core - are believed to be codenamed 'Agena' and 'Kuma', respectively. The names 'Altair' and 'Antares' have also been mentioned in connection with these chips.

Both will support DDR 2, but DDR 3 support won't arrive - officially, at any rate - until mid-2008, when AMD introduces new single-, dual- and quad-core parts. Even then, there will be plenty of DDR 2 systems around, the roadmap suggests.

Single-core versions of Agena and Kuma - believed to be codenamed 'Spica' - will debut in Q4 2007, according to AMD's public roadmap.

Mid-2007 will see AMD's CrossFire chipset family migrate to HyperTransport 3 and PCI Express 2, followed some six months later or so by its integrated chipset line, which will also gain DirectX 10 support. ®

More about

TIP US OFF

Send us news


Other stories you might like