AMD has a huge problem with the B2 revision of its Phenoms. It was supposed to launch 2.2GHz, 2.3GHz and 2.4GHz CPUs, but it looks like the company will have to delay its 2.4GHz CPU to Q1 2008. AMD doesn't have any choice, as the 2.4GHz part is crashing in some heavy load scenarios.

According to senior sources at the company, AMD's 2.4 GHz Phenom has an errata that can crash the CPU in some heavy load multitasking scenarios, but it is “highly unlikely that this will ever happen.” Luckily, there is a fix for the “errata”, but if you turn on the fix, you automatically lose about 10 percent of the performance. In the real world, it won't really work well enough to allow the company to launch a 2.4GHz CPU.

The new B3 stepping will solve the errata and will allow AMD to move to 2.6GHz or faster, and the new stepping comes in Q1 2008; expect it toward the end of the quarter.

This is definitely catastrophic news for this fallen hero, but the 2.2 and 2.3GHz parts will sell for less than €200 in an attempt to try and fight Intel.