Upcoming AMD CPU & GPU Update

New Phenom II and Athlon II are scheduled for launching on September 21. Leading the new batch will be the Phenom II X6 1075T. With a $230-240 price tag and a 3GHz clock speed (or 3.5GHz with Turbo Core), that part should bridge the gap between the $199 1055T and the $295 1090T.

At the same time, the 3.5GHz Phenom II X4 970 should become AMD's new quad-core flagship. There will be two types of AMD Phenom II X4 970 BE CPUs: boxed versions aimed at retail market will be based on the well known code-named Deneb design that has four cores in total; tray flavours of the chips designed for system integrators and OEMs will be based on Zosma design, which is basically six-core Thuban chip with two disabled cores that can be unlocked on certain mainboards.

Also coming : a couple of CPUs priced at around $100: the Phenom II X2 560 and Athlon II X4 645. The new parts will indeed be 100MHz quicker than the existing Phenom II X2 555 and Athlon II X4 640, or 3.3GHz and 3.1GHz.

Meanwhile, AMD is preparing to introduce the Radeon HD 6000-series (Southern Islands) formally in October with retail availability to follow in November. DigiTimes claims that changes in foundry firm TSMC's roadmap led AMD to scrap plans for 32-nm GPUs (code-named Northern Islands) and build Southern Islands products using the same 40-nm process as today's Evergreen chips. Build on the same 40nm, savvy pricing and architectural improvements should be the only weapons at the new Radeons' disposal.

DigiTimes adds that AMD will cut prices across the Radeon HD 5000 series "in the near future".