Intel to control the high-end processor market during 2013

Intel is currently standing in a very comfortable position when it comes to high-end processors, the rival AMD not offering very strong products in this sector, Intel could easily dominate the high-end processor market throughout 2013.

Starting with a little history, Bulldozer was suppose to go against Intel’s best in a ‘clash of the titans’ scenario, however, AMD’s architecture for Bulldozer was three year old, as it was supposed to go against Intel’s Bloomfield 45nm and Lynnfield 45 nm cores released in September 2009. Using an older architecture, Bulldozer couldn’t have beaten Intel’s most recent products.

Sandy Bridge was supposed to be the big rival for Bulldozer, but the latter hardly made a dent in the former. Sandy Bridge-E arrived, pushing things around even more, and now Ivy Bridge is set to come by the end of April, creating something comparable to an earthquake, so to speak.

AMD, however, has some plans to counter with the Volan platform and Vishera CPUs, scheduled to appear sometime in Q3 2012. Even though Vishera cores are slightly better Bulldozer cores, it still cannot win against Ivy Bridge.

Intel has already planned ahead with the new Haswell 22nm architecture scheduled to appear between March and June 2013, AMD on the other hand will have a tough fight as Bulldozer’s next generation 22nm version is still not in sight for 2013.

The high-end market will therefore be a really long way for AMD, but, the good news is that it can still catch things up by offering decent APUs in mainstream and performance segment. Additionally, a great price/performance ratio might win a lot of designs with the Virgo platform and Trinity APUs this year, same could apply for the Kaveri platform and 3rd generation performance APUs coming early 2013.

Source: Fudzilla