AMD Powers Ahead With Three New Models Of Dual-Core AMD Opteron Processors

September 26, 2005

AMD announced three new models in the Dual-Core AMD Opteron processor family, delivering the world’s highest performance for one-way to eight-way x86 servers and workstations.

The Dual-Core AMD Opteron processor Model 880 for up to eight-way, 16-core enterprise-class servers and Model 280 for high performance dual-processor workstations and servers are immediately available. Model 180 for one-processor, two-core servers and workstations is expected to be available within 30 days.

“Introducing the next Dual-Core AMD Opteron processor models less than five months after launching the initial Dual-Core AMD Opteron processors shows undeniable technological leadership,” said Marty Seyer, corporate vice president, Commercial Business and Performance Computing, AMD. “In terms of performance-per-watt, nothing can touch the Dual-Core AMD Opteron processor. It represents a potential annual savings of $50,000 for a datacenter with 500 two-way systems.”

Intel has yet to accept AMD’s Aug. 23, 2005 challenge to a Dual-Core Duel to evaluate workloads and power consumption. AMD’s duel would be a live, public performance evaluation between server platforms based on the highest-performing Dual-Core AMD Opteron™ 800 Series or 200 Series processors and the corresponding Intel x86 server processors that are commercially available in volume.

Performance-per-watt leadership
In addition to offering true dual-core technology, the AMD Opteron processor alone delivers a significant savings for enterprise datacenters. Dual-Core AMD Opteron processors offer significant performance gains while operating in the same power and cooling infrastructure as single-core processors. This can allow fewer servers to do the job of many, helping lower operating costs. In addition, AMD PowerNow!™ technology with Optimized Power Management can increase that savings because it enables servers and workstations to dynamically power down processors, based on usage. AMD PowerNow! technology can reduce CPU power consumption by 75 percent during idle time, decreasing the strain on datacenter cooling and ventilation systems and helping minimize overall power consumption for enterprise IT and workstation customers.

Industry support
The AMD64 processor platform is a gold standard for 64-bit computing, earning the support of more than 1,300 applications from more than 300 independent software vendors and open-source software organizations. These same software applications can support AMD64 dual-core processors with a simple BIOS upgrade and no substantial code changes. In addition, the industry’s leading operating systems—Windows 64-bit editions, the Solaris 10 Operating System and Linux dual-core-compatible operating systems—are all optimized for AMD64 dual-core technology.

Today, the industry’s leading original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) announced support for the latest Dual-Core AMD Opteron processors.

HP added the new Dual-Core AMD Opteron processors across its extensive portfolio of AMD Opteron processor-based ProLiant servers and workstations. Model 880 will add to the record-breaking performance of the four-processor/eight-core HP ProLiant DL 585 and BL45p while Model 280 will offer customers performance increases in the two-processor/four-core ProLiant DL385 and DL145 G2, plus the BL25p and BL35p server blades. HP will also match Model 280 with the performance-class HP xw9300 workstation that features multi-processing capabilities and support for dual PCI-Express x16 graphics. Dual-Core AMD Opteron processors bring the power of four processors to HP’s xw9300 workstation for scientists, engineers, designers and digital artists who demand extreme graphical and visualization performance.

“The new Dual-Core AMD Opteron processors are a welcome addition to our industry-leading servers,” said James Mouton, senior vice president and general manager, Industry Standard Servers, HP. “AMD64 dual-core technology enables us to deliver the power, performance and efficiency our customers have come to expect from HP solutions.”

Sun Microsystems is the first OEM to design and develop systems with the Dual-Core AMD Opteron processor SE Model 280, and will be shipping servers equipped with these highest-performing x64 processors next month. On Sept. 12, Sun launched new industry-standard additions to the Sun Fire x64 server family that are multi-core available, including the enterprise-class four-way Sun Fire X4200 and Sun Fire X4100 servers, and one- and two-way Sun Fire X2100 servers.

“We designed the Sun Fire X4000 series specifically to deliver the highest performance in an enterprise-class 1U and 2U chassis, with complete remote management capabilities and flexibility to run just about any operating system,” said Lisa Sieker, vice president of marketing, Network Systems Group, Sun Microsystems, Inc. “Our newest Sun Fire x64 servers powered with the Dual-Core AMD Opteron processor are optimized for AMD64 technology in order to provide industry-standard x64 systems that set new standards for performance, reliability and energy efficiency for our customers and partners.”