AMD launches its 45nm Opteron processors

AMD launches its 45nm Opteron processors

AMD has now announced the official debut of its first 45nm processors, the 'Shanghai' quad-core Opterons. Still making use of Socket F (1207), the 45nm server CPUs feature HyperTransport, the CoolCore technology, which reduces power to unused sections of each processor to further reduce power consumption., 6MB of L3 cache (up from the 2 MB of 65nm Opterons), an integrated DDR2 memory controller, lower power requirements and generally more processing power.

AMD launches its 45nm Opteron processors

"Flawless execution in bringing the 45nm Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor to market early results in new performance leadership on x86 servers," said Randy Allen, senior vice president, Computing Solutions Group, AMD. "In concert with our OEM and solution provider partners, AMD is addressing the need for enterprises to focus on their bottom line while giving them the innovations they need to build for the future. This enhanced AMD Opteron processor represents the most dramatic performance and performance-per-watt increases for AMD products since the introduction of the world’s first x86 dual-core processors by AMD nearly four years ago. Simply put, the Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor is the right technology at the right time."

The first wave of 45nm processors has already reached stores and the offers of server builders and it includes no less than nine models, all detailed below. Prices are for 1000-unit tray quantities.

AMD ups the ante with four new Opteron processors

It certainly took a while but AMD has now finally introduced some higher-end Opteron CPUs, the SE series. The new releases include four quad-cores aimed made specially for 4-socket and 8-socket x86 servers and clocked at 2.4 and 2.5 GHz.

The Opteron is AMD's x86 server processor line, and was the first processor to implement the AMD64 instruction set architecture (known generically as x86-64). It was released on April 22, 2003 with the SledgeHammer core (K8) and was intended to compete in the server market, particularly in the same segment as the Intel Xeon processor. Processors based on the AMD K10 microarchitecture (codenamed Barcelona) were announced on September 10, 2007 featuring a new quad-core configuration.

"Today, the performance benefits of the new Quad-Core AMD Opteron SE processor built on AMD’s Direct Connect Architecture and HyperTransport technology can help IT managers improve application performance and scalability of memory and data intensive workloads at a fraction of the cost," said Patrick Patla, director, Server and Workstation Business, AMD. "This is a significant benefit for customers looking to consolidate their datacenter or those interested in moving from proprietary hardware to x86 servers for mission critical software, such as database applications."

Set to soon be included in servers made by Hewlett-Packard, Sun Microsystems, Dell and IBM, the new CPUs are the Opteron 2358 SE (2.4 GHz), 2360 SE (2.5 GHz), 8358 SE (2.4 GHz) and 8360 SE (2.5 GHz). The price tags (in 1000-unit tray quantities) set for the SE Opterons are $1,165 (2360), $873 (2358), $2,149 (8360) and $1,865 (8358).

Two new Opteron-powered supercomputers go online

AMD has now proudly announced that two new T2K supercomputer systems equipped with K10 Opteron CPUs have been powered on in Japan.
Developed by the University of Tsukuba, the University of Tokyo, and Kyoto University, the new systems have been build by Hitachi and Fujitsu and delivered to the Tsukuba and Kyoto universities.

The new Tsukuba and Kyoto systems feature four Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors per node and offer a theoretical peak performance of about 95 tflops and 61 tflops respectively. The new Opteron-equipped T2K supercomputers are expected to help with large-scale scientific calculations for researching subatomic particles and nuclear energy, astronomy, climate modeling and weather forecasting, and genetics and biomedical advancements.

AMD launches Dell's four-core Opteron boxes

Dell's Opteron experience hasn't been all that fantastic. After resisting the Opteron push for so long, Dell embraced AMD's flashy chip just as Intel started to catch up on performance and performance per watt metrics with Xeon. Then, Dell watched as AMD shot itself in the chest with the four-core Barcelona roll out. Dell was left with a bunch of designs that needed the MIA four-core Opteron and surely plenty of questions about why it bothered with AMD at all.

But despite such displeasure, Dell has invested in AMD and remains committed to Opteron for the foreseeable future. So, it upgraded five server boxes with Barcelona – now that the chip is finally shipping without flaws.

Customers can find four-core Opterons in the PowerEdge SC1435, 2970 and 6950 servers and the M605 blade box. There's also the PowerEdge T605 tower unit. All of those are two-socket boxes except for the four-socket 6950.

We're still waiting on Dell's Veso virtualization appliance that was, er, meant to ship in November with a pair of four-core Opteron chips. The box packs in a ton of memory and an embedded hypervisor. Dell had wagged the kit in front of customers to show how ahead of the compeittion it was in the virtualization game. AMD messed up the program just a bit by shipping Barcelona about nine months late. Oh well.

And we'll leave you with a funny thing about Dell's latest Opteron box roll out. AMD was the company that issued the press release about the fresh hardware - not Dell. ®

© The Register.