14 DAY TRIAL // After a great deal of delays, AMD has recently announced that it has started shipping the first processors based on the high-performance Bulldozer architecture. These first chips to arrive were released into the Opteron 6200 product family and target server and workstation systems.
The press release was not accompanied by and information regarding the specifications or the model number of the processors released, but they mention the fact that these include 16-core x86 computing cores and are based on the Interlagos design.
As most of you surely know by now, Interlagos chips are built by joining together two six or eight core Valencia dies, and are compatible with the existing G34 socket.
Compared to their predecessors, the new Opteron 6000-series chips bring a number of improvements, the most important of these being the addition of AMD's Turbo Core dynamic overclocking technology.
In addition, the chips also feature a configurable TDP, which enables system builders to set the power consumption of the CPU according to their specific needs.
“This is a monumental moment for the industry as this first 'Bulldozer' core represents the beginning of unprecedented performance scaling for x86 CPUs,” said Rick Bergman, senior vice president and general manager, AMD Products Group.
"The flexible new ‘Bulldozer’ architecture will give Web and datacenter customers the scalability they need to handle emerging cloud and virtualization workloads,” concluded the company's rep.
According to AMD, Interlagos is expected to launch and be available in partner systems in the fourth quarter of this year.
One of the first machines to include the new server CPUs will be built by Cray and is also expected to arrive in the second half of this year. The XK6 pairs AMD's multi-core processors with Nvidia's Tesla 2000-series compute boards. (via VR-Zone)