It’s been a rough week for AMD fans: not only did the long-awaited 4×4 disappoint in just about every way conceivable, but the company also announced that it had finally produced its first 65 nm chips–a few days after Intel announced that, having conquered 65 nm, it will now move toward a 45 nm process. Fear not AMD fans, there’s hope on the horizon yet. Ars Technica‘s resident processor expert Jon Stokes takes a close look at AMD’s upcoming Barcelona: the world’s first “native” quad-core chip. As you’ll recall, the Barcelona houses four cores on a single die–in contrast to Intel’s quad-core Kentsfield, which some have accused of being quad-core in name only. At any rate, Barcelona looks awfully promising; the only question that remains is whether AMD will have arrived at the quad-core party too late.

For a closer look at Barcelona: 
– see Ars Technica‘s preview of the chip