AMD starts shipping 90-nanometer chips

Advanced Micro Devices has begun to ship processors made on the 90-nanometer process to notebook manufacturers and will start to ship similar chips to desktop manufacturers in a month, according to a note from investment firm Goldman Sachs, which met with AMD Chief Executive Hector Ruiz.

Ruiz's statements indicate that AMD has made its most recent deadline for shipping these chips and mastered many of the headaches involved in their production. Like competitor Intel and others, AMD had to postpone 90-nanometer manufacturing a couple of times. Originally, these chips--which sport smaller average features than chips made on the 130-nanometer process--were supposed to come out at the end of 2003. A high-end notebook chip code-named Odessa is expected to be AMD's first 90-nanometer chip, followed by San Diego and Winchester for desktops.