The next stop for bulldozers: 2013 28nm

Intel is fully deploying 22nm process upgrades and incorporating 3-D transistor technology. The AMD side has just begun to enter the 32nm era, and the next stop will not span 22nm or 20nm. It will only go to the half-generation process 28nm. In the history of the entire x86 microprocessor, this will be the first time a half-generation process has been used.

In fact, there was a road map a month ago. In 2013, AMD will launch two 20-core "Dublin" and 10-core "Macau" server processors with a manufacturing process of 28nm. The core architecture is still an enhanced version of the bulldozer. It is almost identical to Terramar and Sepang next year.

It looks like it will be the same on the desktop. First in 2012 is the eight-core "Komodo" and dual/quadonic "Trinity" that continue with the 32nm process. Both are based on an enhanced bulldozer architecture and incorporate the DX11 graphics core.

Future official product plans have not yet been announced, but sources said that the 2013 AMD desktop processor is also a 28nm process, and will abandon the AMD strained silicon technology used by AMD for many years and use Bulk technology instead. In fact, GlobalFoundries does not plan to use SOI even in the 20nm era. As for the core architecture, the 28nm version will also be an enhanced bulldozer, depending on whether it can be increased to 10 cores.

GlobalFoundries recently released 28nm HKMG high-performance technology and Samsung to put into production, 20nm process test chip tapeout success and other good news, but I am afraid that AMD will not be too happy, after all, with the Intel technology gap will increase. There are indications that the GlobalFoundries 20nm process won't be finalized until 2014-2015, and AMD clearly can't wait.

Speaking of bulldozers, the release time of the Zambeizi FX series is still varied. Some say that they will officially debut on September 19. However, others say that they are delayed until the fourth quarter (at least in October), but they are more consistent. It is certain that shipments will be very limited in the short term. After all, GlobalFoundries will use the 32nm production line to manufacture the A Series APUs, Bulldozer FX Series, and server versions of the Opteron 4200/6200 Series, which will be officially released on September 26.