Advanced Micro Systems presented yesterday its new processors, which are designed to cover every single segment of the PC market, including the extremely popular ultraportable netbooks. The company’s new Opteron server processors called Shanghai, are the first to use the advanced 45 nanometer fabrication process and are designed to provide higher performances with a significantly lower power consumption. AMD announced that the performance will be improved by at least 35 percent compared to the previous generations of server chips and at the same time the consumption will be reduced with more than 30 percent.

Even though the complete presentation is still to come, there are certain known details about the new product: The Shanghai is based on the company’s Barcelona chip, carrying 6 MB of L3 and will support DDR2-800. It will feature a power-saving technology called Smart Fetch and also improved virtualization performance. Smart Fetch is AMD's new developed power-saving technology which allows a chip to completely power down the cores that aren't in use.

AMD also introduced Yukon, which is its first platform designed to take on the popularity of Intel’s Atom processor and it will include a processor named Bobcat and a chipset that will need less than 25 watts to operate.

For 2009, AMD plans address the mainstream notebook market with the release of a new platform called Tigris, in the second part of the year. It will include the 45-nm dual- and single-core mobile processors called Caspian and the upcoming RS880M and SB710 chipsets, and will provide enhanced high-definition video playback, better battery life, and also faster performance.

The company’s long term plans include a release in 2011 of a low-cost, low-power platform for mobile PCs called Brazos, which will feature a dual-core system called Ontario and DDR3 memory. Also for 2011, AMD has scheduled the release of its notebook and desktop platform called Sabine, which will use an accelerated processing unit called Llano and will ensure a significant battery-life boost for notebooks.

During the company’s annual Financial Analyst Day, held at its Sunnyvale, Calif., headquarters, AMD’s acting Chief Financial Officer Robert Rivet addressed the economic downturn, calling it "a storm that will pass," and also added that they will not change their guidance as he is certain that "We will come out of it in a better economic position."

His estimates for 2009 are extremely positive, as he believes that the company will record a sales growth of 4 percent to 5 percent in units, with a global Gross Domestic Product of 1.8 percent.

The company is looking for the products that will win its market shares back its share of PC and server chips fell down to 17.7% in the third quarter, from 23% a year earlier, with Intel’s popularity boosting its share to 82.1%, according to a report released by Mercury Research. The strategy should bring some positive results, as AMD managed to cover the entire market with its plans over the next 3 years.