AMD Bumps Speeds of 8 and 12-core Opterons
AMD's popular Opteron multi-chip-module design workstation and server processors received a warming up on Monday. The AMD Opteron 6100 series is based on two hexacore dies on a single chip, known as an MCM. AMD allows upto four way operation of these processors from a single SKU - removing the '4P tax' of an additional, usually more expensive, product line for 4P servers.
Manufacturing process improvements allow the speed bumps of the 5 new processors to deliver more performance in the same thermal envelope. Servers using the G34 socket may be able to drop-in upgrade with only a BIOS Flash, to the new Bulldozer based processors due for release later this year around Q3.
The high core density allows up to 96 cores in a 2U server, in some blade style designs. More normal designs such as Dell's PowerEdge R815 offers 48 cores with 2U and six 2.5" SAS disks.
Read more about the Opteron's dubbed 'the Industry's best processor' here.
today announced the immediate availability of five new members of the AMD Opteron™ 6100 Series processor family that specifically address rising demand for low-power, balanced systems for SMBs and increased performance-per-dollar-per-watt for enterprise and public sector environments. Key partners including Acer, Dell and HP are launching new or refreshed AMD Opteron 6000 Series platform-based systems this quarter, powered by these new 12- and 8-core AMD Opteron processors.
“These new server CPUs deliver greater performance than we’ve ever had before,” said Patrick Patla, vice president and general manager, Server Business, AMD. “When we launched the AMD Opteron 6000 Series platforms last year, we eliminated the ‘4P tax’ and met market demands for higher performance-per-dollar-per-watt. Our customers’ benchmarks and testimonials bear out these improvements, and these five new parts—and the rave reviews—prove that we continue to deliver on our vision.”
- These processors are socket-compatible with the AMD Opteron 6000 Series platform, as will be AMD’s upcoming 16-core “Bulldozer”-based Opteron processors.
- AMD Opteron 6000 Series platform-based systems powered by the new AMD Opteron processors are available now from OEMs and system builders, including Acer, Appro, Cray Inc., Colfax, Dawning, Dell, HP, Microway, NCS Technologies, Inc., Nor-Tech, Penguin, SGI, Silicon Mechanics and ZT Systems.
- Servers using the AMD Opteron 6000 Series platforms are delivering excellent performance, value, and energy efficiency, outperforming Intel Xeon processor-based servers on numerous key server benchmarks, including SPECint®_rate2006, SPECfp®_rate2006, and TPC-C Value (Price/tpmC).1 Learn more about server benchmarks here.
- Two-processor servers using these latest AMD Opteron™ processors outperform Intel Xeon 5680 (“Westmere”) processor-based servers on eight key server benchmarks.2
- SPECint®_rate20061
- SPECint®_rate_base20061
- SPECfp®_rate20061
- SPECfp®_rate_base20061
- SPECjbb®20052
- TPC-C Value (Price/TpmC)1
- TPC-H Value (Price/QphH)2
- SPECpower™_ssj2008 power consumption2
Manufacturing process improvements allow the speed bumps of the 5 new processors to deliver more performance in the same thermal envelope. Servers using the G34 socket may be able to drop-in upgrade with only a BIOS Flash, to the new Bulldozer based processors due for release later this year around Q3.
The high core density allows up to 96 cores in a 2U server, in some blade style designs. More normal designs such as Dell's PowerEdge R815 offers 48 cores with 2U and six 2.5" SAS disks.
Read more about the Opteron's dubbed 'the Industry's best processor' here.