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AMD To Stop Production Of 486, 586 & K6 Chips
Dear VersaLogic Customer:
This letter is being sent to alert you to an important change in the long-term availability of several VersaLogic products. Please read it carefully.
AMD, the supplier of CPU chips that are used on many of our products, has notified us that they plan to re-tool the production line that currently produces 486, 586 and K6 CPU chips. AMD needs to use their Fab 25 facility to produce a different line of products and will stop production on these CPU chips on June 28, 2002. The CPU chips produced by this facility are used in our VSBC-2, VSBC-6, VSBC-7, Panther, VL-686-2, and VL-586-1 products.
This decision by AMD, with whom we have worked closely for many years, is a major blow to the embedded computer market. It is very surprising that their long-standing dedication to the embedded market has taken such an abrupt turn. As recently as October 2000 they announced new processors (the K6-2E+ and K6-IIIE+) and assured us of their continuing long-term support for the embedded market.
Please note that this decision by AMD does not mean that they will immediately halt production or that these CPU chips will be in short supply. Normal production of these chips is scheduled to continue through June 2002. Last-time-buy orders can be placed in June for delivery of the chips in late 2002 and early 2003.
VersaLogic management has been hearing rumors of this possible change (various versions of it) over the last few months and has been working closely with AMD to avoid this radical change in their direction. We prepared for the possibility that their decision would ultimately be to issue an end-of-life notice. Now that the decision has been made, our focus will be on assisting our customers with planning and migration issues over the next 12-24 months.
Although this change is not immediate, each customer must look at the long term impact that this announcement will have on their product usage. In some cases this will mean placing an end-of-life purchase order with VersaLogic to continue delivery of the current product even after the AMD chips have been discontinued. For others it may involve qualifying new products, or using Intel Tillamook versions of our current products, for the current application. Tillamook versions of most impacted products will be available before year end. For further information please see the roadmap and migration information on our web site at http://www.versalogic.com/support/rdmp/rdmp.asp or contact us directly at info@versalogic.com.
Again, this change is not immediate, but planning steps should be taken now to assure a smooth transition in the future. We stand ready to support you as needed to make this transition as easy and painless as possible. "
I've gotten a couple of these e-mails - full test of the e-mail is pasted below.
This is a test of the AMD emergency broadcast message. This is only a test. If this had been an actual email, you door would have been kicked in by federal agents, your AMD CPU's would have been confiscated, and you would have been arrested for violation of the DMCA. We now return you to your regularly scheduled email.
As long as they don't stop production on their flagship processor....
I guess now the embedded market will have to dig its 486s out of the garbage like the rest of us...
Only when absolutely necessary. The R&D cost of re-engineering a product dwarfs the cost of saving a few pennies by moving to more modern, high volume hardware.
So this decision will cost some companies in R&D. That sucks!
No... no, wait, I'm an R&D engineer... yah, AMD! ;)
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
Will they replace them with embedded Athlons? Maybe Geforce will get into the embedded game? Not to flame, but maybe this means we'll soon have ATM's with antialiasing, antioscopic filtering and radiosity lighting.
Curmudgeon Gamer: Not happy
And on top of that, play a good game of Quake too!
I can only imagine the frustration of people waiting in line, while the college student who can't afford his own Geforce has finished playing Unreal Tournament on the ATM. (Online through it's POTS/ISDN connection, mind you!)
When you rely on closed-source, proprietary vendors for critical applications.
If only the various users had banded together with the vast Free Chip community, this sort of thing would never happen.
Just imagine patent free, fast embedded processors available Free to all members of the community!
Who is going to join me in the new GNU/MAFFTP (Microprocessors Are Free For The People) project?
Conformity is the jailer of freedom and enemy of growth. -JFK
What, me worry?
NOW how will I realize my dream of constructing a Beowulf cluster out of 486 SX/25s? If I get a few hundred more it'll be JUST AS FAST as my Athlon 500!
- A.P.
"Remember when the U.S. had a drug problem, and then we declared a War On Drugs, and now you can't buy drugs anymore?"