AMD launches Shanghai, Phenom II coming in '09

Today AMD officially launched their first 45-nm Opteron CPUs. Previously codenamed Shanghai, the new CPUs feature a larger, 6MB L3 cache, DDR2-800MHz support, and eventually HyperTransport 3.0 will be available next year. When combined with IPC and power consumption improvements, AMD says their new 45-nm Opteron CPUs deliver 35% more performance than their 65-nm Barcelona CPUs while drawing 35% less power at idle. 

AMD is launching at speeds ranging from 2.3-2.7GHz, all with 75W TDPs. Faster CPUs will follow in Q1'09.

Also launching in Q1'09 will be AMD's first 45-nm Deneb desktop CPUs. These Deneb processors will be branded as "Phenom II" CPUs and are expected to launch at speeds as high as 3.0GHz, with support for AMD's existing AM2+ socket. For users who need a complete platform upgrade, AMD plans to unveil their Dragon platform alongside the Phenom II launch. According to the AMD press release, Dragon is a "second generation AMD performance desktop platform, featuring all next-generation components in comparison to the first generation AMD Spider platform released in 2008." However, the AMD PR then goes on to state that Dragon will utilize a 700-series chipset (most likely with SB750 South Bridge and ACC): "The AMD “Dragon” platform is designed to harness the power of fusion by optimizing the performance of new 45nm AMD Phenom™ II X4 quad-core processors with award-winning AMD 700 Series chipsets and award-winning ATI Radeon™ HD 4000 series graphics."

In other words, it sounds like Dragon is nothing more than your average enthusiast can buy today, minus the 45-nm Phenom II of course. It's previously been rumored that AMD's next-generation 800-series chipsetshave been delayed until well into 2009 and that AMD is prepping 790FX for AM3 duty to compensate.