AMD puts Barcelona on ice… again.

By Stevie Smith Dec 6, 2007, 13:24 GMT

Chipmaker AMD forced to put another delay on its Barcelona server chip. Credit: AMD.

California-based chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) has once again been forced to slap another delay on its long-awaited Barcelona processor, which was initially pencilled in for release during the mid-point of 2007 but only began shipping in September.

According to a New York Times report, AMD has revealed that a fresh technical irregularity has affected Barcelona’s widespread availability in the server market, resulting in the chip’s full release being pushed back into 2008.

It’s likely that this latest delay will impact negatively against those server manufacturers waiting (im)patiently to incorporate Barcelona into their product lines.

While the majority of customers won’t be in a position to welcome the energy-efficient Barcelona chip until next year, an official AMD spokesman has maintained that the company will be "continuing to ship it but only to specific customers."

Described by AMD as one of its most significant new products in years, the Barcelona chip is AMD’s debut quad-core processor, offering up four separate processors all combined onto one piece of silicon. The improved data processing and energy efficiency produced by Barcelona reportedly make it ideal for server farms and data centres.

The AMD spokesman also outlined that the company will provide a workaround for existing Barcelona customers, which will enable them to continue using the chip while the technical ‘errata’ are being ironed out ahead of a new model scheduled to arrive in January. He also added that the Phenom desktop iteration of Barcelona has also been affected by the irregularities but a workaround solution for that was delivered prior to shipping.

Analyst reaction to this latest turn of events is that although AMD customers will likely lose a modicum of performance by utilising the provided workaround, the overall disadvantages caused by the delay will not require AMD to "retrench."