Computer hardware manufacturer AMD recently expanded its broad range of products available for web hosting companies with the addition of its latest Opteron microprocessor. Touting extreme power cutting capabilities and increased overall performance, the new six-core chip operates at a mere 40W.

Applications

With cloud computing and dense deployments driving the need for greater efficiency, the new low power chip is designed with heavy operations in mind. The Opteron chip enables platform versatility and flexibility with regard to the demanding applications used in virtualization. The chip also gives greater performance and manageability to intensive database applications. The HyperTransport™3 technology built in the six-core chip helps reduce filter probe traffic between processors and significantly improves database and virtualization workloads. For HPC applications, the new chip can supply varied needs by workload and memory bandwidth. AMD’s newest addition reduces power costs and helps create more efficient servers.

Beginnings

In an apparent race to keep up with its nearest competitor Intel and in answer to computer makers needs, AMD announced in the spring of 2008 its intent to create the new low power chip based on its Istanbul micro-architecture. Within seven months, the design was completed. Initial prototypes created in their factories in Germany proved that the new chip worked well. Some unforeseen bugs caused a few months of design revisions but a year later, the six-core chip was in production. For ease of implementation, the chip is specifically designed to be placed within existing systems running older quad-core chips, a request made by computer makers. Upon installing, e-per-watt increases of up to 31% have been reported.

Press information

According to a recent press release introducing their new product, Patrick Patla (VP and GM for server and workstation businesses at AMD) stated that close collaboration with the company’s customers brought about a belief that a clear value shift is changing the economics of the server market. Patla went on further saying that the new six-core processor will meet the increasing need for superior performance and scalability. AMD has also reported that this new chip delivers fourteen times the performance of its first server chips, created over six years ago.

Competition

Intel has its own six-core processor, the 7400 series Xeon, which launched in late 2008. The company is already busy working on a new eight-core Nehalem chip which can be expected the first part of 2010. The latest word on AMD is that it plans on having an even faster and more efficient processor out on the market by 2011.

Final word

In the world of the hosting business and cloud computing, energy efficiency is paramount. The rivalry between AMD and Intel should prove to show better and lower powered processors in the future.

For more information regarding AMD’s new chip, check out the company’s PDF slideshow covering many aspects of the chip, an interactive demo or take a look at their YouTube channel that gives you a “behind the scenes” look.

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