AMD readies second-generation quad-core Opteron
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After 'Barcelona', 'Shanghai' AMD will release 'Shanghai', an "enhanced" version of its recently demo'd 'Barcelona' quad-core Opteron processor family, early on in 2008, the chip maker revealed yesterday when it published a server roadmap that was also notable for the absence of FB-DIMM technology and, indeed, DDR 3.â¦
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High-end processors for computer servers will compete with an upcoming new product from AMD.
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Computers built with Advanced Micro Devices&#39; Opteron processor soon will be able to take advantage of the same power management technology the company has already built into its laptop and desktop microchips.
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(InfoWorld) - AMD hopes to seize a larger share of the server chip market fromÂ its rival IntelÂ on Monday when it launches the Barcelona quad-core processor. AMD has been shipping the Quad-Core AMD Opteron chip to server vendors throughout August but will use its news conference in San Francisco to publicly announce those partnerships as well as prices and benchmark test results. The company plans to launch a 1.9GHz, 68-watt Barcelona chip that focuses on power efficiency, and a 2.0GHz, 95-watt version that focuses on price/performance, said Randy Allen, AMD's corporate vice president for the server and workstation division. In the fourth quarter, the company will follow that with a 2.3 GHz, 120-watt version for high-performance applications, and higher clock speeds for the first two chips. There is a lot at stake. After launching the original Opteron chip in 2003, the company enjoyed brisk demand as customers applauded the power-efficient performance of that 130-nanometer design process chip. But Intel soon got back in the fight as both companies built smaller, faster components, shrinking their chip scales to 90nm and adding a second core. AMD has endured disappointing results lately,Â posting losses in the hundreds of millions of dollars for recent quartersÂ and focusing its attention onÂ a merger with graphics chip maker ATI. At the same time, Intel claimed bragging rights to beating AMD to quad-core architecture andÂ 65nm scale chips with its ClovertownÂ server chip.Â Intel is also preparing to launch an even smaller-featured design in the fourth quarter with its 45nm Penryn chip. AMD says Barcelona is the answer to the Intel challenge. The chip is designed with all four cores on a single die as opposed to Intel's design of joining two dual-core Woodcrest Xeon chips, Allen said. Even more important, AMD upgraded each core from 64-bit floating point performance to 128-bit and retained its Direct Connect architecture and on-chip memory controller to avoid bottlenecks in data flow, he said. Thanks to that design, the new chip will provide better performance while using the same amount of power, he said. A customer could upgrade a Hewlett-Packard ProLiant DL 385 server from AMD's dual-core to quad-core Opteron and gain faster operation with the same power and cooling demands. "Clovertown will look very anemic, especially as we bring out new frequencies. Customers really don't buy nanometers. What they care about is performance and benchmarking," said Allen. "That Direct Connect architecture is very helpful with virtualization, running multiple OSes, and other applications pulling more data than can be held in on-chip memory." Despite those advantages, AMD has missed out on a spike in market demand driven by a need to upgrade to servers capable of performing virtualization, one analyst said. "A lot of people view this as six months late or more," said Doug Freedman, managing director for research at American Technology Research. "Expectations got ahead of themselves, and some people viewed this as a potential savior for AMD after their server share topped out at the end of last year going up against Intel's dual-die quad-core. Now the feeling is this launch isn't robust enough in terms of samples shipped, design wins, and the complete food chain." To recover, AMD will have to quickly increase its production and release faster versions of Barcelona to improve the chip's availability for a range of applications, Freedman said. Intel executives say they are pressing the lead. "We are very confident, at least on the DP [dual processor] side, that we will have leadership across most of the benchmarks versus Barcelona," said Adesh Gupta, regional platform architecture manager at Intel Asia-Pacific's Server Platforms Group. "There are a small percentage of benchmarks which are floating-point based where we know that they have an advantage and that's an area which we will see them talk about a lot.... If you look at the broader spectrum of applications at the enterprise, we have a significant lead today, and we believe we will have that lead with Clovertown, and once we have Harpertown with 45nm we will extend that lead further," Gupta said. However, some vendors say there is room in the market for both chips. Each processor has its own strengths, said Dell CEO Michael Dell in remarks to financial analysts at the Citigroup Technology Conference in New York on Wednesday. Based on early tests, Dell said, a server using Barcelona chips is faster at running floating-point applications than a computer with Intel's Clovertown chips, but Clovertown is faster than Barcelona at running integer instructions. "So depending on the applications you run, or your theories of computer science, one of those servers may be the best for you. It is simply unacceptable for a company of Dell's size to have only one of those choices," Dell said.
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Like a boxer recovering from several body blows, AMD has thrown a punch back at its opponent, Intel. But will AMD&#39;s first quad-core server chip, the new Opteron, help turn things around for the beleaguered chipmaker?
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Computers with AMD&#39;s Opteron processor will soon be able to take advantage of the same power management technology the company has already built into its laptop and desktop microchips.
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SAN JOSE, Calif.--Advanced Micro Devices on Tuesday detailed performance results for its forthcoming dual-core Opteron processor, showing a speed boost of 30 percent to 55 percent compared with today&#39;s single-core models.
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AMD Opteron servers prove more power-efficient than Xeon-powered servers in tests.
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Advanced Micro Devices says its "Barcelona" quad-core Opteron processor will ship in August, as planned.
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Never to be left outdone for long, AMD answered Intel's challenge yesterday at a press event in San Francisco, unveiling a system design that, while not a single CPU, makes the case for "teraflop on a budget."  It's a four-processor system that uses a pair of Opterons and a pair of co-opted ATI R600 graphics chips.
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Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) said Friday it would begin shipping its &quot;Barcelona&quot; quad-core Opteron processor in August, rebutting industry rumors that the chip faced manufacturing problems that could delay it until October.
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Slotting into existing product line AMD looks set to introduce its first 65nm processors in December this year, a quartet of dual-core Athlon 64 X2 CPUs, if a report citing sources who've seen the chip maker's latest roadmap are to be believed.â¦
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originally offered on notebook PCs -- to its Opteron 32- and 64-bit x86 processors for server applications. The technology will help servers to run
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AMD has raised the stakes with Intel as the pair prepare to do battle over dual-core processors following last week&#39;s demonstration of a dual-core x86 Opteron.
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Going native in Barcelona AMD has demo'd its upcoming quad-core Opteron server processor, a few days after launching the gamer-oriented Quad FX, which despite its name is a dual-core part.â¦
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AMD has been demonstrating the industryâs first x86 dual-core processor at its Austin facilities on an HP ProLiant DL585 server powered by four dual-core Opteron processors manufactured on 90nm SOI process technology, the company announced today.
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Company puts on a demonstration of promised 'Barcelona' quad-core Opteron chip.