AMD: between adjustments, innovations and cancellations

Small dot on the latest information from AMD. Between non-compatible sockets, price adjustments, cancellations and new processor ...

Things are moving towards AMD. Whether through information obtained through official channels or through good old leaks, we learned a lot of things these days about them. Already, we have confirmation that the sockets FM2 - the future platform that will host Trinity - will not be backwards compatible with Socket FM1. Bad news. On future AMD APUs, the foolproof have indeed changed and it goes from 905 to 904 pins. If the motherboard manufacturers will be happy, but this may mark a small halt in sales of FM1 APUs in the months ahead. And AMD could be a sad record with the life of the socket ...

It's a shame, as new processors FM1 continue to arrive on the market. This is the case of the Athlon II X4 651, which replaces the 631 and takes the Llano die while disabling the graphics core. Its frequency increases from 2.6 to 3 GHz for a TDP of 100W, all for $ 92, slightly cheaper than the Athlon II X4 640 AM3 in when it should be more efficient.

As a result, AMD took the opportunity also to realign the prices on the side of APU's A-Series. The dual-core A4 and A4-3300-3400 both increased by $ 2 in the depth of listings from respectively $ 66 and $ 71. However, the price of the A6-3500 increases from $ 89 to $ 85. Finally, AM3 +, the Bulldozer FX-6100 will see its price drop by $ 10 from $ 165 to $ 155.

Finally, we note the cancellation of the Deccan platform that was supposed to come and replace the Brazos 2.0 platform. The APUs, which bore the names of Krishna and Wichita Code should succeed to the Zacate E-Series and Ontario in the C-Series. They were to be engraved in 28 nm and we can therefore assume that cancellation is to the account of the difficulties GlobalFoundries to take his time on this process. But rumors that the chips come out eventually TSMC plants, such as APUs platform Brazos. Nevertheless, the Brazos 2.0 platform will have to wait the future platform Kerala and APUs Kabini in 2013 to see the arrival of a successor. With any luck, this will push AMD to speed things up as much as possible to stick to the arrival of Windows 8 ...