AMD Intros Quad-Core Spider Platform

[Sunite]

AMD Intros Quad-Core Spider Platform
By Barry Levine
November 19, 2007 10:48AM

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AMD's release of the Spider platform comes at a time of intense competition for Advanced Micro Devices, whose chief rival, Intel, has released a steady stream of powerful new products, including 45-nm chips. AMD is not expected to release its own 45-nm chips until the second half of 2008, but the Spider platform could keep AMD in the game until then.

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   AMD
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   Gaming
   Multimedia
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   Power users, get ready, get set. Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE:AMD) announced on Monday that it is releasing its newest platform -- codenamed Spider -- described as the first true quad-core chipset supporting scalable graphics. The platform includes the AMD Phenom quad-core chip, the ATI Radeon HD 3800 graphics processors with DirectX 10 support, AMD 7-Series chipsets with CrossFireX, and AMD Overdrive software.

The company said that the Spider platform can support three or four graphics processors, providing a "true gaming supercomputer." Some configurations of the Spider platform, according to AMD, will be able to deliver an estimated two teraflops of processing power. A teraflop is a trillion floating point operations per second.

Spider a 'Good First Step'

AMD also said that the Spider platform offers several technologies that are designed to be high-performance but use little power. These include the low-power 6-nanometer 7-Series chipsets, the 55-nm Radeon HD 3800 graphics processors, and ATI PowerPlay.

Toni DuBoise, an analyst with industry research firm Current Analysis West, said that Spider is "a good first step for AMD into the quad-core arena for desktops," but that it is targeted at the high end of the market. It would have benefited AMD more, she said, if it had provided quad-core desktop products for a broader market as it goes into the holiday season.

The benefit of launching first for the higher-end, she noted, is that power gamers are "influencers," to whom others frequently go for advice about new systems. But she pointed out that it is still too early to evaluate some key aspects of the platform. For instance, comparative performance specifications for the Phenom chip are not yet out.

Intense Competition for AMD

The release of the Spider platform comes at a time of intense competition for AMD. Rival Intel has released a steady stream of powerful new products, including 45-nm processors. AMD is not expected to release its own 45-nm chips until the second half of next year, while Intel has already shown prototype 32-nm processors.

AMD weathered a rough third quarter, with losses of $396 million that were due, in part, to its $5.4 billion acquisition of ATI Technologies -- whose Radeon graphics processors are featured in the Spider platform.

Last week, Mubadala Development, the investment arm of the government of Abu Dhabi, said it is purchasing about 8.1 percent ownership of AMD for $607 million. AMD said it would use the new funds for research and development.