14 DAY TRIAL // The dual-core Opteron line from AMD is alleged to be up to 15 percent more efficient than Intel's Xeon division under the newest SPECcpu2006 benchmarks. AMD have started boasting their benchmark testing results, that show a 50% increase in integer and floating-point performance in the quad-core line, compared to the dual-core Opterons. Moreover, AMD's website is full of buzzing advice regarding correct benchmarking procedures, as well as the smashing difference between their quad-core Opterons fueled by a directly connected L2 cache and Xeon's shared L2 cache.
Although AMD are giving their very best to show the difference of a correct benchmarking procedure, they have forgotten to add a final conclusion or benchmarking results for the quad-core line. The new quad-cores from AMD have been recently released on the market and have called in help from OEM giants such as IBM, HP, Sun and Dell to even the score with Intel's taking the lion share on the server market.
"Sun is thrilled about the introduction of Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors. Incorporating Sun's innovative design principles that enable stunning scalability and industry-leading performance-per-watt, our upcoming Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor-based servers and workstations will only accelerate the momentum Sun is experiencing in its x64 business," said John Fowler, executive vice president of Sun Microsystems' Systems Group. "With so much pent-up demand for the scalability of native quad-core processing, Sun believes there will be rapid, widespread adoption of Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor-based systems. We applaud AMD for yet another technological breakthrough, and are excited to continue to grow our alliance."
The presence of both AMD and Intel on the quad-core server market can only please OEMs. Because the struggle for markets always results in prices being abruptly cut down.