AMD server roadmap for 2012/2013

During Financial Analyst Day even yesterday AMD disclosed new server roadmap for 2012 and 2013 years. In a surprise move, the company canceled "Terramar" and "Sepang" processors, and replaced them with less ambitious "Abu Dhabi" and "Seoul" designs, that will preserve compatibility with existing G34 and C32 platforms.

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Picture: AMD server roadmap for 2012/2013, Courtesy of AMD

AMD currently offers "Interlagos" 6200-series products for 1, 2 and 4-way servers, and "Valencia" 4200-series CPUs for 1 and 2-way servers and workstations. Both series are built on yesteryear "Bulldozer" 32nm architecture, and feature up to 16 and 8 CPU cores respectively. In the first quarter 2012 AMD will launch "Zurich" Opterons, aimed at uni-processor systems. These Bulldozer-based microprocessors will have up to 8 cores, and work in socket AM3+ motherboards. In the second half of 2012, AMD will replace "Interlagos", "Valencia" and "Zurich" processors with "Abu Dhabi", "Seoul" and "Delphi" CPUs. According to the roadmap, the major change in these server processors will be "Piledriver" core, while many features, like the socket infrastructure and the number of cores, will stay unchanged. "Piledriver" core is expected to add new instructions, and have better IPC than Bulldozer core. Previously planned "Terramar" and "Sepang" server microprocessors were scrapped, which means that this year we will not see 20-core AMD CPUs, or PCI Express gen3 support on AMD server platforms. On the other side, "Abu Dhabi" and "Seoul" Opterons will maintain compatibility with G34 and C32 platforms, which should reduce upgrade costs for existing AMD customers.