Fans of Athlon X2 processors, and huge OEMs that use them, are set to place their final orders for K8 parts next quarter.  But no worries!  They are going to release a dual-core version of Phenom in Q1 of 08 as well in the form of the Athlon 6000 series.

AMD has recently outlined the phase-out schedule for several of its Athlon 64 X2 CPUs, while the Athlon brand name will be re-purposed for upcoming dual-core CPUs based on the K10 core, according to sources at motherboard makers.

AMD will stop taking orders for Athlon 64 X2 6400+ black edition and 89W version Athlon 64 X2 6000+ processors in the first quarter of 2008. Last orders for 125W Athlon 64 X2 6000+ and Athlon 64 X2 5600+ processors will be at the end of the first quarter, the sources detailed.

AMD will also stop taking orders for Athlon 64 X2 4200+ and 4000+ processors by the end of this year and will launch a 65W Athlon 64 X2 4600+ clocked at 2.3GHz and with 1MB L2 cache in second quarter of 2008.

AMD will launch a new series of dual-core products based on its next-generation architecture, Athlon 6000, in the later half of second quarter next year. First to launch will be the Athlon 6250 and 6050, the sources revealed. Although the core frequencies of the two CPUs have not been set yet, they will adopt 1MB L2 cache and 2MB shared L3 cache, the sources added.