AMD reports positive news about its quad-core bug and announces progress on 45 nm processors

Sunnyvale (CA) – A clearly more upbeat AMD was able to report some positive news about its quad-core bug as well as the progress to roll out 45 nm processors.

AMD chief executive officer Hector Ruiz today told analysts that the company has fixed a bug that severely impacted the launch of the company’s Opteron and Phenom quad-core processors. According to Ruiz, the bug has been fixed and the fixed B3 stepping CPU “has left the fab”.

President Dirk Meyer said that the CPU is “running through the paces internally” at this time with engineering samples expected to be shipped to customers within “2 to 3 weeks”. Volume production is scheduled to begin “later in the quarter” and first systems with the fixed processors should become available late in Q1, Meyer said.

Production volume of Barcelona and Phenom quad-core will be about double of the “nearly 400,000 units” that were manufactured during Q4, CFO Bob Rivet noted. On the server side, AMD will focus to get “mid-band power, high volume” quad-core Opterons into the market with higher speeds, 2.5 GHz and above, being scheduled for a Q2 introduction. As previously reported, the higher speed Phenoms will also have to wait : AMD will roll out triple-core Phenoms and 65-watt (low power) quad-core CPUs during Q1. “Higher speeds will follow in Q2”, Meyer stated.

There also was some positive news on the company’s 45 nm progress. Ruiz said that AMD that 45 nm Opterons have been produced and he is “pleased” with the initial result. However, he said that the company is targeting a H2 ramp of the 45 nm generation, which indicates that AMD will miss the originally promised mid-2008 launch of the processors. This statement also contradicts Meyer’s statement from the Q3 2007 earnings call that AMD would begin ramping 45 nm CPUs in H1 2008.

A late 2008 launch of 45 nm processors appears to be more likely now, which means that the 1-year gap to Intel could remain in place and the company will not be able to gain ground on its rival in terms of the production process.