In case you were wondering what somewhat troubled chip maker AMD was going to do in the next few years, the company's now revealed its completely updated roadmap that addresses everything from high end all-in-one desktops to netbooks and UMPCs. Especially interesting is it's treatment of its "Atom-killer"... which it says "won't be going to the bottom where Atom is going."
Basically, AMD's designed two chips targeted at the netbook market on its "Yukon" platform, due in first half of 2009. Consumers are getting "Caspian" and "Conesus," both 45-nm dual-cores with integrated DDR-2 controllers. Caspian is designed for ultraportables and will contain 2 Mbytes of cache. Conesus, made smaller to fit into the tiny little bodies of netbooks, will only contain 1 Mbyte. But Senior VP Randy Allen hedged that the chips weren't specifically designed for netbooks, and that Yukon was focused on customers who don't want a "compromised PC experience." Translation: AMD's saying no to Mobile Internet Devices.
It's 2009 desktop plans were less murky. High-end lines will get "Deneb", a quadcore chip with 8Mbytes of cache and options for both DDR-2 or DDR-3. Mainstream desktops can look forward to "Propos"—also quadcore but with 2 Mbytes of cache.