We spotted an AMD roadmap on Expreview that shows AMD introducing a bevy of e-class Phenoms and Athlons in early 2009.
According to this roadmap, AMD will introduce 4 new Phenom-branded 'e'-class processors in the second quarter of 2009, while maintaining the current 9450e, 9350e and 8450e 65nm-built processors (65W). There are two new X4s and two X3s, but so far no confirmation on the core clock and, consequently, the official name, although it's pretty much a given it'll sport the five-digit naming scheme. This'll be left up to the way things ramp in the 45nm Phenom camp.
Expreview says that the new X4s are Propus cores, and that they’ll have 65W and 45W respectively. 45W would be a tremendous feat for a Phenom, though, but they explain it with a much lower clock speed (2.1GHz-2.4GHz) and a slower HT bus (3.6GHz, instead of the Deneb’s standard 4GHz). We wouldn’t expect the tri-core e-class Phenoms to sport lower wattages if AMD design keeps with the past, though.
The Athlon X2s are supposed to sport a 45W TDP, putting them in line with prior “e”-class offers. The 4850e is an old acquaintance – it’s been on the market for a while - but the 5050e is being introduced as we speak, and according to the map, it’ll keep the power on low until Q2-09.
Quite honestly, the really interesting part here is the 5050e, as it keeps the 45W envelope but sports a 2.6GHz clock. We’ve actually seen a couple of different listings on this one, for both AM2 and AM2+ but that could just be a typo. Still, this processor should allow itself to be installed in pretty much any ol’ AMD mobo and still do a bit of everything. It’s also cheap at about US$100. You can buy AMD’s 9350e, 5050e and 8450e right now, if you want.
It looks like AMD has covered all its bases in this green roadmap, keeping the AM2+ and AM2 crowd fed with current offers well into 2009, churning out the new Phenom e-class CPUs and still finding time to revamp the Athlon X2 line.
Your upgrade path seems to be safe, for a while at least.