AMD promised last November to introduce Barcelona in Q2.

Then it was "summer" and "mid-year".

Now it is "still" Q3 ?

And they blame their partners for their own need to re-spin the product? Wow.

ADM said mid year (to my recolection), to most people that means may through august (slightly larger target than a quarter but usefull when you need to span Q2 and Q3).

If they launch in the next 2.3 months they are on schedule.

Also they are not blaming their partners they are saying they will only announce when their partners are ready, they never said why their partners aren't ready. I'm glad they are waiting becuase I don't want to see a paper launch (which you would get if their partners weren't ready).

If the partners were ready tomorrow, then would they release the Barcelona the day after? I doubt it, and believe they are blaming their partners for it not being released. After seeing that 16 core barcelona test system run against the 8 core xeon system (http://news.softpedia.com/news/8-core-Intel-Workstation-Pounds-16-core-AMD-Platform-to-the-Ground-55639.shtml), i am not holding my breath in any way. However, i am looking forward to the release so Intel can provide price drops on their quad-cores. And i am a fanboy of the fastest, not the brand. If Phenom manages to suprise me (and by beating intels offerings, that would be one hell of a suprise) i will be all over it (that is if AMD can get sli working on their chipsets).

Intel's quad core is going down in price on July 22. If amd can release a better product at a comparable price then i might reconsider. Is AMD going to offer DDR3 boards or not? Are they going to wait for intel to get ahead of them in that segment until they do something about it?

i think something strange going on here.

Its either AMD has what it takes to take intel down or they just mumbling themself to it.

If they have what it take, why don't they just release the benchmark? this is what intel did prior core 2 release and it works!

It is possible they tring to be the second apple (keep secrets), but AMD is a public company like intel, i don't think they want to watch their stock value skyrocket downward for the sake of a "secret".

Its not like intel can do anything right now if the shows that barcelona can beat them by 100%.

Rather curious remark for a company that has touted this chip as a drop in replacement for as long as I can remember.... If it's a drop-in chip, aren't the partners who have been shipping Opteron (I think this chip/socket has been out for a little while now) ready?

Sounds like typical AMD double-speak to me. Why can't TG or someone do some real reporting and ask AMD some questions about very DUBIOUS statements like this.

Also why is release of the desktop chip tied to the server chip?

While I agree with most comments here, that they arent blaming partners, they havnt delayed in a wide release window and theres something going on. Just like the 2900xt, if they had delayed a lil longer the card would have been more efficiant, but they cut it as close as possible. I think lettings their partners prepare for a good release, and having good availability will help them crank up the speeds as well as the yields, or better yet, to be able to stratify their yields accordingly

What do you mean delayed a lil longer? It was "ready" in March and only needed some driver tweaks according to Henri and a top to bottom graphics launch!

firstly i dont they are blaming their partners they just want to release the proc when the *boards that can utilize the processor full potential after all they are fighting for the top spot.
secondly their desktop processors are tied closely to their servers is because those two are almost the same.
im not a fanboy but we consumers especially benefit from Intel and AMD competition. look at how cheap the processors now

Personally, I really would not like to see any more delay from AMD. I think this is the last stand for AMD, if they can't make it then the x86 market will be slowing a lot and we don't even know whether the processor was good or not. Hopefully this day wouldn't come...

Far too many analysts are unjustly throwing mud at Barcelona speculating delays and disappointing performance. Throughout 2006 they predicted launch mid 2007, in April they said samples already sent to OEM's, and the last official public statement was at a UBS conference 9 May where CFO said "New Barcelona MPU architecture launches Q3". All sounds consistent and good to me, just too many Intel-sponsored bashers around - Intel must be worried.

Let the chip ship when it's ready. I don't care much if AMD retakes the crown or not. I don't care if their new processor is delayed or not. Just release something worth while when it's ready.

The apps I write still run at a better price / performance ratio on AMD dual cores then on the core 2 platform. I hope their next processor will continue that trend while keeping the price down.

I have to agree with Stormbird8 on this one.

The real question is: can AMD deliver a product that is competitive in terms of price and/or performance with what is on the market when it's actually released? I guess I'm not confident. Intel continues to move *up* release dates, while AMD pushes them back. Available benchmarks show that Barcelona is more or less equivalent to new Xeons... but Xeons are available and Barcelonas are not. Even if K10 can compete with the Core 2 sometime in Q3-07... Nehalem has been bumped up to Q2-08. And where is AMD's DDR3 solution?

In short, I'll take products over promises any day.