AMD First with 8-Core and 12-Core Server Processors

The race for the fastest processor on the market has long been focused on increments of the processor core count, rather than enhancement of the processor speed. On that note, today, Sunnyvale California-based Advanced Micro Devices launched its latest series of Opteron processors, codenamed Magny Cours. The introduction of the much-anticipated platform has put AMD in the position to provide its costumers with a choice for 8 core and 12-core CPUs, designed to increase performance in both memory and compute intensive workloads.

“As AMD has done before, we are again redefining the server market based on current customer requirements,” said Patrick Patla, vice president and general manager, Server and Embedded Divisions, AMD. “The AMD Opteron 6000 Series platform signals a new era of server value, significantly disrupts today’s server economics and provides the performance-per-watt, value and consistency customers demand for their real-world data center workloads.”

In addition to the release of the new processors, AMD also announced the introduction of its 5600 Series chipset, featuring I/O virtualization. The new platform offers a number of benefits, including more memory, thanks to the 12 memory DIMMs per processors, an enhanced memory controller with support for 4 channels of DDR3 memory. The chipset will also provide Quad 16-bit HyperTransport 3 technology links with up to 6.4 GT/s per link and PCIe 2.0 support.

The new processors are designed to accommodate the 2- and 4-socket enterprise servers, providing a choice for the industry's first 12 core and 8-core processors, featuring L2 of 512K/core and 12MB of shared L3 cache. There's also AMD's CoolCore, PowerNow, CoolSpeed, APML technologies, Enhanced C1 State and more.

With the release, AMD revealed that the platform would be compatible with the company's upcoming server processors, based on the anticipated “Bulldozer” core. Thanks to its overall specifications and pricing, the new platform is expected to be adopted by Acer, Cray, Dell, SGI and HP.