Bulldozer is not even with us yet until mid-October and yet there is already talk of its replacement which is due some time in 2012 providing it is not as plagued with delays as Bulldozer has been. The new Vishera CPUs will be part of the Volan (which replaces Scorpios) platform and to throw even more names in to the mix, the Vishera CPUs will be formed from Piledriver cores which will be improved Bulldozer cores: still based on the 32nm fabrication process. The new Vishera CPU’s will be designed to combine with the new PCI-E generation 3 discrete graphics based on the 28nm Southern Islands GPUs.
AMD expects these Vishera processors to compete with the Sandy Bridge-E but since they could come out up to a year after by the then AMD could be dealing with an even more powerful Intel chip, like an Ivy Bridge-E? AMD needs to turn around its processor generations a lot faster if it is to catch up with Intel. The Vishera CPUs will utilise the AM3+ socket so will be backwards compatible with the 990FX boards so Bulldozer owners can easily upgrade in a years time without the hassle of a new motherboard. All this means the previously detailed Corona platform based on up to 8 core FM2 processors now hits the back burner as AM3+ takes precedence for performance while FM1 will take the lead for value and mainstream consumer demand.
