14 DAY TRIAL // It seems like AMD's server branch had a really good year in 2010, as both the Opteron 6100 processors series and the Dell PowerEdge R815 server, which is based on this CPU family, were crowned for their performance by two prestigious media publications.
In a post on his official work blog, AMD's Director of Product Marketing for Server, Embedded and FireStream products, John Fruehe, outlined that the AMD Opteron 6100 was chosen by InfoWorld as the best CPU in 2010 for parallel processing while the PowerEdge R815 was named best server of the year by CRN.
The AMD Opteron 6100 CPU, also known under the code name of Magny Cours, is an eight-core processor that is made by joining together two quad-core chips in the same package.
Available in speeds ranging from 2.0 to 2.4GHz, the CPUs packs dual 6MB L3 memory caches, four HyperTransport links, which enable it to be used in 4-way servers, quad-channel DDR3 1333 MHz memory support, and are compatible with Socket G34 motherboards.
Four such chips can be installed inside the Dell PowerEdge R815 machine, which was named the best server of the year by CRN.
“The Dell PowerEdge R815, powered by the AMD Opteron 6100 series processor is the best server of the year,” said the publication.
Thanks to its quad-socket design, the PowerEdge R815 can come with up to 48 processor cores packed inside its rather compact 2U chassis, Dell allowing it to be configured with up to 32 DIMMs.
When 8GB DIMM modules are installed, the total memory capacity can reach 256GB.
In addition, the server can hold up to six 2.5-inch hot-swappable SAS, SATA or SSDs providing a maximum internal storage capacity of up to 3TB.
In the third quarter of 2011, AMD's Opteron 6100 processor series will be replaced by the 12 and 16 core Interlagos chips based on the Bulldozer architecture.