AMD Delays 64-Bit Hammer Shipments

Advanced Micro Devices

Instead, the Sunnyvale-based chipmaker said it would boost the performance of its 32-bit Athlon systems by upgrading its front-side bus capability to 333MHz in the fourth quarter.

That performance gain, AMD executives said, will allow the company to make available its Athlon XP chip, based on the processor core, code-named Barton, to be available in the first quarter of next year for both the desktop and mobile solutions.

Still, some analysts viewed this as a blow to AMD, which is already 18 months behind rival Intel in delivering a 64-bit processor to the marketplace.

"For next year, our loss estimate increases from 18 cents to 74 cents as the pushout of Hammer creates another quarter of substantial losses for the company," said a note from Merrill Lynch to investors early on Friday.

The change in schedule does not affect AMD's scheduled release next year of the server version of its 64-bit processor, Opteron, an AMD spokeswoman said.

In a CRN survey in June of more than 200 solution providers, only 12 percent said they had any plans to deliver Hammer-based systems in the coming year, while 51 percent said they had no plans. Still, AMD executives said they saw that as a good sign, since the product wasn't even available.

Rich Salmeri, president of Computer Escape, a Randolph, Mass.-based solution provider, said the decision on Hammer wouldn't have an impact on his solution plans, but the improvements to Athlon could.

"I didn't have any Hammer sales lined up," Salmeri said, noting he waits to actually see and test a product before selling it into a solution. The enhancements to the Athlon, he said, could be a positive.

"Anything that gives more performance and speed is going to help any of the solutions they provide," Salmeri said. Performance, he said, is "what people are chasing."

AMD rival Intel began shipping its first 64-bit operating system, Itanium, last year. Earlier this year, it began shipping Itanium 2--the version of the processor expected to be the first to ramp into the market in large volumes.

Earlier this year, AMD reiterated its road map for Hammer on the desktop and on the server, saying it expected the desktop version of the chip to be available in the fourth quarter. Now, according to an AMD spokeswoman, the processor will ship in either the late part of the first quarter of 2003 or the early part of the second quarter.

Opteron, the spokeswoman said, is still set to ship in the first half of next year and the mobile version of the Athlon processor, based on Hammer technology, will still be available in mid-2003.