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AMD publicly stated late last year that it would be able to offer quad-core AMD Phenom 9700 and 9900 CPUs with fixed erratum as well as at higher clock-speeds in Q1 2008. However, the chipmaker recently notified its partners that the launch of its higher-end chips will be postponed until next quarter.

To quell rumors that tied the delay to the CPU errata made public late last year, AMD just sent us an email hoping to clarify where things stand with this on-going roll-out of AMD quad-core and triple-core processors. According to the company, the decision to postpone the launch was based on OEM input on how AMD should prioritize its next two waves of AMD Phenom processor models:

Based on these customer inputs, AMD will continue to prioritize volume-based Phenom products, including the AMD Phenom triple-core processor introduction for consumer and commercial markets this quarter, and now a new energy–efficient 65W AMD Phenom 9000e series processor in this quarter (instead of Q2).
What’s strange is that AMD says it’s doing this at the request of its customers, but considering PC design cycles usually take months, they should have known about this well before AMD’s analyst day in December when they said the higher-end Phenom chips were on track for the first quarter. Anyway, check the rest of AMD’s email after the jump.

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* AMD launched its highest-volume versions of AMD Phenom quad-core processors in mid-November (models 9500 and 9600), and we shipped hundreds of thousands in Q4 2007. OEMs demonstrated production AMD Phenom processor-based desktops during 2008 International CES this week.

* For the enthusiast market, AMD then launched a performance tunable “Black Edition” of the 9600 model in December 2007 to address the enthusiast market. This was an additional quad-core product added to our Q4 roadmap and is now available on major e-tailer sites.

* AMD will now introduce the AMD Phenom 9700 and 9900 models in Q2 2008. This decision was based on OEM input on how AMD should prioritize its next two waves of AMD Phenom processor models. Based on these customer inputs, AMD will continue to prioritize volume-based Phenom products, including the AMD Phenom triple-core processor introduction for consumer and commercial markets this quarter, and now a new energy–efficient 65W AMD Phenom 9000e series processor in this quarter (instead of Q2). AMD Phenom 9700 and 9900 models will immediately follow next quarter.

* Our OEM customers are placing more priority on our energy-efficient and triple-core processors, where the volumes and ability to differentiate products take precedence over the more prestigious, but much lower volume, higher performance quad-core products.