Chinese website HKEPC have gotten their hands on a launch time frame and specifications for AMD's first batch of quad-core Opterons based on the new Barcelona architecture. They report the chips will come out in June in three main flavors clocked at 2.1GHz, 2.2GHz, and 2.3GHz. Each flavor will available in multi-socket (82xx) and dual-socket (22xx) variants, and all models will have 512KB of L2 cache per core, 2MB of L3 cache per chip, DDR2-667 memory support, and a 95W thermal envelope. HKEPC goes on to say that AMD won't introduce faster quad-core Opterons until the third quarter, and that those chips will run at 2.4GHz and 2.5GHz with 120W thermal envelopes. The fastest quad-core Opteron on AMD's roadmap is a 2.6GHz model scheduled for the second quarter of next year, the site claims.

It seems that these new chips will, like the current Brisbane chips, utilize half-step multipliers rather than a half-size L2 cache to differentiate them. And it looks like we won't get DDR2-800 support right away? Hmmm.

Yeah...AMD may be in serious trouble. Especially If the performance of these chips doesn't measure up and considereing that intel will be going to 45nm, then AMD MAY BE toast :-(

So no desktop quad-core on the horizon?

AMD is starting to worry me. What the hell have they been doing the past year. Intel is going to keep getting further and further ahead and AMD won't have a chance to leap-frog anymore.