VR-Zone

Digitimes reports that AMD is set to announce its next-generation series, codenamed Southern Islands, in October, with a hard launch in November 2010. Widely speculated to be branded ATI Radeon HD 6000 series, S. Islands is an intermediate link between Evergreen and the generation previously planned for Q4 2010 at 32nm, Northern Islands.

Details regarding S. Islands remain elusive. All we know is that it will continue to be manufactured at TSMC's 40nm, and is likely to be an evolution on the Evergreen / HD 5000 series. However, S. Islands is rumoured to introduce some of N. Island's uncore.

AMD is also expected to cut prices of its HD 5000 series products. Nvidia's products have been dropping in prices substantially, and with the introduction of the aggressively priced GTX 460, AMD's HD 5800 series products are losing out on the crucial price/performance metric. These price cuts will also prepare the market for Southern Islands GPUs.

We are still two months away from AMD's official announcements, and much of S. Islands still remains a mystery.

Reference: Digitimes