We've seen an updated server roadmap where AMD places its six-core Istanbul processor for the second half of 2009. At first, AMD internally said that there will be some samples in late 2008, but 2H 2009 is the time of volume production.

The new six-core CPU will have 6MB L3 cache and DDR2 support, powered by HT-3 and AMD Virtualization support. Of course, this CPU will be developed in 45nm and it looks just like Shanghai 45nm CPU but with two additional cores.

Istanbul fits in the current socket F1 (1207) and it will be available for 2P and above configurations: OEMs shouldn’t have much trouble to make it work in existing servers.

In 2009 AMD’s chipset of choice for the server market is Nvidia Nforce 3600/3050 with Broadcom HT-2100/1000; while that will change in 2010 for AMD’s own chipset. We would be scared if we were Nvidia’s chipset manager, as it lost a lot of AMD market and you can bet that it will be even worse for Intel chipsets.

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AMD plans native Six-core, Istanbul