AMD has indicated to motherboard makers that it will advance the launch of its quad-core K8L desktop platform to the third quarter of 2007 from 2008 scheduled earlier. To be manufactured on a 65-nm node AMD's quad-core desktop processor will be named Altair and sport a clock speed of 2.7 to 2.9 Ghz. The quad-core series that AMD will launch in the third quarter next year include Athlon 64FX and Athlon 64X4 parts. Altair will adopt Hyper-Transport 3.0, but the K8L platform will be compatible with K8 motherboards that run Hyper-Transport 1.0.

According to AMD's plans, quad-core processors will account for 10% of its shipments of mainstream and higher-end products by the third quarter of 2007, and the percentage will increase to 20% by the end of 2007. There is no official announcement from AMD yet on the same.