[mascotzel]

AMD 45 nm Shanghai up and running (@Fudzilla)

Working prototypes, can hit 3GHz+

AMD already has some prototypes of Shanghai native quad core at 45 nm and 6 MB of L3 cache. This unit won't go in production till sometimes next year but at least the marchitecture works.
Sources close to company also confirmed that AMD can 45 nanometre parts without changing the fabs so the usual suspect Dresden fab will get a line to produce these parts.
The best part is that this will allow AMD to reach the 3GHz or fastest clocks and get back in the game versus Intel. TDP, the thermal dissipation of Barcelona or Budapest K10 parts at 3 GHz would just be too much as these parts are 65 nanometre only.
So Penryn and Yorkfield will have Shanghai to make it run for its money all in 2008.

K10 at 2.5 GHz beats QX6800 in multimedia (@Fudzilla)

A 33 to 66 percent faster

In Sandra multimedia benchmark Agena / Barcelona K10 2.5 GHz scores over 400.000 it/s (instructions / second) in integer test and about 300.000 it/s in floating point test. Yeah there are some Agena / Barcelona parts runing at 2.5 GHz at press time and we got the chance to share the scores with the world.
Intel's fastest QX6800 Quad core at 3 GHz scores about ~300.000 it/s in integer and ~180.000 it/s in floating point test.
So at least in multimedia stuff and this synthetic benchmark AMD's native quad core is 33.3 percent faster than Intel's fastest Quad core, while in the floating calculations it is a massive 66 percent faster.
The QX6850 with FSB 1333 might improve the situation a bit, but it won't be enough save the day. Intel needs to go much higher than 3 GHZ to match the 2.5 GHz K10 part.

AMD running out of cash (@Fudzilla)

Raises $1.8 billion

Chipmaker AMD has had to raise more than $1.8 billion or face running out of money by the end of the year.
The company, which is locked in a price cutting war with Intel, said the money will be used to pay off $500 million of a $2.5 billion loan it took out to buy graphics chip maker ATI Technologies in October.
Analysts are warning that the loan is a stop-gap measure likely to get the company through the year and will not solve the company's underlying financial problems.
Intel has been doing extremely well againsts AMD. Its chips are often better and and cheaper to make. Barcelona can change it and save the day for AMD.