14 DAY TRIAL // On the heels of AMD launching the Opteron 6000 CPU series, Microsoft is telling customers and partners that it has been working with the processor maker in order to ensure that Windows Server 2008 R2 plays nice with Magny-Cours. The new AMD Opteron 6000 Series platform feature 8-core and 12-core server processors designed to boost performance more than twice compared to AMD’s previous-generation 6-core chips. According to Microsoft, Windows Server 2008 R2 and Hyper-V are a perfect match for the new CPUs.
“Microsoft has partnered with AMD in the data center since the original AMD Opteron processors were launched in 2003, and we naturally have been working together to deliver enhanced efficiencies with the new 8- and 12-core AMD Opteron 6000 Series platforms,” David McCann, general manager, Windows Server Marketing at Microsoft, noted. “Customers running Windows Server 2008 R2, Hyper-V and SQL Server will benefit from the balanced price, performance and power these new server platforms offer.”
Windows Server 2008 R2 in combination with the new 8- and 12-core AMD Opteron 6000 CPUs will enable customers to cut down on the energy consumed to run their servers. A member of the Windows Server division underlined that the latest iteration of Windows Server came with full support for the new power-management features included in Magny-Cours. In this regard, Windows Server 2008 R2 supports scenarios in which servers powered by the 6000 series can have CPU usage for the entire processor as well as individual cores and specific logic tailored to specific workloads. This is possible because Windows Server 2008 R2 plays nice with AMD-P technology and the C1E Power State feature, set up to disable both the memory controller and HT3 links while the server is idle.
“The new Opteron 6000 Series addresses three key data center trends directly, namely virtualization, power management and value. On the virtualization front, the Opteron 6000’s ability to support up to 48 cores in a 4P configuration means enough horsepower for large virtual machine configurations. Additionally, the Opteron 6000 also includes AMD-V software virtualization acceleration technology, which is fully supported by Windows Server 2008 R2’s Hyper-V,” the Windows Server division representative added. “With Windows Server 2008 R2’s support for dense virtualization infrastructures and granular power management, the combination of Microsoft’s Windows Server platform and AMD’s Opteron 6000 series gives customers the power, performance and value they need to deliver next generation data centers today.”