New Roadmaps, New Names, New Prices

PC Watch has a new AMD roadmap.

It has other useful nuggets of information, but what’s really useful about it is that it tells you when you can expect high-end socket A processors to get cheap.

It does so by indicating when these processors are due to move into the “value desktop” segment.

Of course, your notion of “value” likely carries a lower price tag that AMD’s, but it’s probably safe to say that to AMD, Value = $90 or less. That figure comes from Duron introductory pricing, which generally came in at a bit under $100.

Given that, the roadmap first shows a new name for a value processor: Thorton (this might be a misspelling; if AMD is sticking with horse names, Thornton is more likely).

From the roadmap, you can’t see any difference between it and a Thoroughbred, but it does show an introduction around June/July, with an introductory speed of 2600+.

So, it’s probably reasonable for you to expect to pay about $90 for a 2600+ in June/July.

The roadmap also shows when Bartons are due to get cheap, too. The roadmaps show Bartons going into the value sector sometime after Clawhammer get released, say, November.

A 3200+ Barton is shown to go into the value segment in early 2004, say, February.

Set your buying roadmaps accordingly.

Two Clawhammers

The roadmap confirms that there will be two types of Athlon64s, one with a 1Mb cache and a 3400+ rating to be released around October, and a 64 Jr. with 256K cache and a 3200+ rating to be released towards the end of the year.

It also indicates that the 90nm versions of these chips will come out in the spring/early summer of 2004.

If relative placement is any guide to pricing (which it very well may not be), it looks like 64Sr. will be and stay quite expensive, and 64Jr. will be the reasonably priced one (but not until summer 2004).

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