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AMD: Barcelona on time, but Budapest slips

Chipmaker reaffirms third-quarter launch schedule for quad-core Barcelona chip but says shipments to Cray of different quad-core processor have slipped.

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Stephen Shankland principal writer
Stephen Shankland has been a reporter at CNET since 1998 and writes about processors, digital photography, AI, quantum computing, computer science, materials science, supercomputers, drones, browsers, 3D printing, USB, and new computing technology in general. He has a soft spot in his heart for standards groups and I/O interfaces. His first big scoop was about radioactive cat poop.
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Stephen Shankland

Citigroup analyst Glen Yeung has begun suspecting that Advanced Micro Devices' quad-core "Barcelona" processor is late, but the chipmaker said Tuesday that it remains on schedule. However, shipments to supercomputer maker Cray of a close Barcelona relative code-named Budapest have slipped.

There is "no delay" for Barcelona, spokesman Phil Hughes said Tuesday. The chips, and some systems using the chips, will be available in the third quarter, he said.

Barcelona is a strategically important chip for AMD, as it tries to regain market share lost to Intel's newer Core 2-based Xeon server processors, the dual-core 5100 and the quad-core 5300.

However, Budapest shipments to Cray slipped. "Specific to Cray, we did have a change in our schedule, as far as when Cray gets Budapest parts," Hughes said, declining to share further specifics.

Barcelona is designed for systems with two or more processor sockets, but Budapest is for single-socket systems.

Cray in May said it delayed an upgrade to its AMD-based XT4 supercomputer until "late 2007."