To kick off AMD's Analyst Day at the company's Sunnyvale, California headquarters, AMD demonstrated a system running on a quad-core desktop 3.0 GHz processor. The processor, codenamed Agena, will be the flagship AMD high-end offering.

The system used standard cooling, though company officials would not disclose how much power the system consumed. In addition to the unannounced processor, the system also included a three-way CrossFire configuration. Two ATI Radeon HD 2900 graphics adaptors provided video acceleration for the system; the third, we were told, provided physics support for the demonstration.

AMD's quad-core Opteron launch, slated for later this summer, is expected to debut at 2.0 GHz. Company roadmaps ramped this clock frequency launch down several times -- the company's original roadmap launch plans indicated we would see a 2.6 GHz processor at launch.

An AMD engineer, speaking on terms of anonymity, claimed to DailyTech that the company took on several unplanned respins for the K10-family. "We ramped the spin aggressively. It's going to bring the clock frequencies we need for the desktop," he said.

The company would not comment on when the 3.0 GHz Phenom-based processor would debut, though the company has previously indicated Phenom will ship for volume by the 2007 holiday season.

AMD, 3.0 GHz, Quad-core, Codename, Agena, Processor, CPUs, AMD News

Source:? DaliyTech