14 DAY TRIAL // As anticipated, Sunnyvale, California-based Advanced Micro Devices has officially taken the wraps off its next-generation Opteron server processors, announcing the availability of the world's first 6-core CPUs for server systems. Codenamed Istanbul, the new processors will provide customers with Direct Connect Architecture for two-, four- and eight-socket servers, ultimately confirming the chip maker's commitment in deploying the latest hardware technologies and features for its customers. According to AMD, these new Opteron processors have been designed to deliver superior value with unmatched platform flexibility.
“Based on close collaboration with our customers, we believe there is a clear value shift changing the economics of the server market,” said Patrick Patla, vice president and general manager, Server and Workstation Business, AMD. “The new Six-Core AMD Opteron processor meets the increasing need for a combination of low total cost of ownership, superior performance-per-watt and scalability. Simply put, Six-Core AMD Opteron processors deliver top-line performance that’s bottom-line efficient.”
As mentioned in several of our previous articles, AMD's latest Opteron processors have been designed as a higher-performance alternative to the company's current line of quad-core processors, offering the same socket-compatibility. Several new enhancements have been made available with the launch of the new Opterons, including improvements to 4P stream memory bandwidth by up to 60% through new HyperTransport technology (HT Assist). This solution is said to be capable of reducing the processor-to-processor latency and traffic. In addition, the chip maker also announced an increase of 34% in performance-per-watt over the previous generation of quad-core Opterons.
With the launch of Istanbul, AMD has unleashed several new CPUs, including the Opteron 2427, 2431, and 8431, priced at US$455, US$698 and US$2149, respectively. Higher-end models, including the Opteron 2435 and 8435, have been priced at US$989 and US$2649, respectively. AMD announced that it was expecting its new Opteron processors to become available from leading OEMs like Cray, Dell, HP, IBM, and Sun Microsystems. HE, SE and EE versions of the new Istanbul chips are expected to become available in the second half of 2009, according to AMD.