Advanced Micro Devices upcoming Deneb processors have made it to the headlines within the past few weeks, and, as their launch date closes even more, new info on them seem to surface every day. The chip maker has already announced that the new chips will come under the Phenom II brand, which will include the high-end models, while the low-end parts will be branded Athlon.

According to the latest news, the first new line CPUs are expected to hit the market in January, on the 8th day of the month, to be more precise, and they will be compatible with the already-existing AM2 and AM2+ chipsets from the company. These chips should remain on the market for about half a year, during which the Sunnyvale company expects to complete the transition to the next-generation AM3 platform, designed to fit the needs of the new processor.

An article published by the guys from HKEPC shows both the names of the new Phenom II and Athlon parts scheduled for release at the beginning of the next year, as well as the market segments the chips are aiming at. It seems that the maker plans to release seven quad-core 45nm processors featuring core speeds ranging from 2.5GHz up to 3.0GHz. The 2.5GHz part would be Phenom II X4 805, which would also sport 6MB of cache, the same as the 2,6GHz Phenom II X4 810. Both chips are scheduled for February, along with the 2.6GHz Phenom II X4 910 with 8MB of cache.The other four Phenom II X4 chips are 920 running at 2.8GHz and 940 clocked at 3GHz, both featuring 8MB cache and coming on January 8th. The 2.8GHz Phenom II X4 925 comes in February as an AM3 part, the same as Phenom II X4 945 running at 3GHz, which will arrive in April next year with 8MB of cache.

Beside the quad-cores, AMD also plans launching two Phenom II X3 processors based on its code-named Heka chip, the Phenom II X3 710 featuring 2.6GHz and 7.5MB cache and Phenom II X3 720 with the same cache but 2.8GHz clock speed. Both chips are expected to arrive in February 2009. The Athlon series will include six processors based on the company's Propus, Rana and Regor cores, two for each of them. These chips will arrive in April and June next year, and quad, triple and dual-cores, respectively.