AMD has pulled that plug on Deccan, the low voltage APU that was scheduled to succeed the highly successful Brazos platform next year.
According to several sources, AMD was unable to reach a satisfactory agreement with Globalfoundries. The foundry was apparently unable to provide volume 28nm production by mid-2012, which would give Deccan a relatively short lifespan. Going back to TSMC, the makers of AMD’s 40nm APUs, would entail redesigning the chips, which was and a practical option this late in development.
The mess left AMD in a rather awkward situation and not it seems the outfit will have to come up with entirely new 28nm designs for TSMC. Some punters believe AMD simply won’t have time to design entirely new chips and it will have to resort to die shrinking Brazos generation chips. This would basically mean sticking with a derivative of the 8-year-old K8 architecture, which originally started out as a 130nm design. Next generation APUs, including Trinity and probably Deccan successor will use Bulldozer derived cores.
In case AMD chooses to redesign existing chips, it still might be able to introduce 28nm APUs in 2012. However, it would take it about 18 months to design a true replacement for cancelled Krishna and Wichita chips. This would give Intel ample time to catch up and seize much of the market with its 32nm Atoms.
More here.