AMD: 64-Bit Server Chip In 2003

In addition, AMD said it signed an agreement with Microsoft to create a version of its 64-bit Windows platform for AMD's next generation of processors, code-named Hammer.

"We have signed an agreement which provides a framework to develop Windows solutions for x86-64 technology," said Dirk Meyer, AMD's group vice president of computation products, in a conference call last week announcing the deal. Meyer stopped short of making a specific product announcement.

Although the server-based versions of the new chip platform won't be available until next year, AMD said production is still on schedule, as the desktop versions of the chip are still slated to launch in the fourth quarter, the time frame originally set for the platform.

As part of the announcement, AMD said its first 64-bit-enabled chips,to be shipped under the Athlon brand for desktops,are scheduled to roll out at the end of 2002, while the Opteron server processors are slated to launch sometime in the first six months of 2003. This next generation of processors has been billed as AMD's answer to Intel's Itanium line.

But AMD still may face an uphill battle. Two major OEMs,Compaq Computer and Hewlett-Packard,have aligned themselves so tightly with Intel on the Itanium platform that last year they ditched their own processor platforms.

Isaac Hill, an account manager at CPACinc.com, a Yorba Linda, Calif., white-box manufacturer, said 90 percent of his clients have Intel systems installed, and, of those, "a few, not that many" have begun using Itanium-based systems. Their preference for Intel over AMD has more to do with issues of reliability, Hill said.

AMD made the announcements the same week company co-founder Walter "Jerry" Sanders stepped aside as CEO, turning the reins over to successor

Hector Ruiz.