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AMD roadmap slots 400MHz FSB Athlon XP launch in April/May

Thorton to replace Morgan as Duron core

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)

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