AMD launches 45nm quad-core Opteron processor

(chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2008-12-04 11:41

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) officially launched Wednesday its newest generation of enhanced Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors built on world-class 45nm technology, code-named "Shanghai" in the Shanghai Supercomputing Center.

Compared with the previous generation, the new processor breaks the record for the performance and efficiency of x86 servers, increasing performance by 35% and reducing power consumption by 35% at idle, with a 40% increase in virtualization performance, which results in new performance leadership on x86 servers.

High-level executives from key software and hardware manufacturers both at home and abroad, including Dawning, Dell, Huawei, IBM, HP Sun, Microsoft, Novell, Oracle, Red Hat, VMware attended the lanuch event. By the end of the fourth quarter, global OEM partners are expected to provide more than 25 new systems based on the "Shanghai" for large, medium and small businesses. Many of AMD’s customers, including the Shanghai Supercomputing Center, have high expectations for the capabilities of "Shanghai" and has placed a premium on implementing the technology.

Vanoy Wong, Corporate Vice President of AMD speaks at a launch ceremony of its newest generation of enhanced Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors in Shanghai on December 3, 2008.

"This new processor really meets the demand of customers for high performance, low consumption, virtualization and investment protection. It set up the new mile stone of x86 processors and turns to be a new opportunity for the IT industry in this 'winter'" said Vanoy Wong, Corporate Vice President of AMD.

"Flawless execution in bringing the 45nm Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor to market early results in new performance leadership on x86 servers," said Randy Allen, senior vice president, Computing Solutions Group, AMD.

"In concert with our OEM and solution provider partners, AMD is addressing the need for enterprises to focus on their bottom line while giving them the innovations they need to build for the future," Randy added.

"This enhanced AMD Opteron processor represents the most dramatic performance and performance-per-watt increases for AMD products since the introduction of the world’s first x86 dual-core processors by AMD nearly four years ago. Simply put, the Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor is the right technology at the right time."

Data center managers are facing escalating pressures from the computing demands of enterprise workloads, like web serving and database applications, and the need to do more with less in the current IT spending climate. Emerging technologies such as cloud computing and virtualization, which has posted 60 percent year-on-year growth in the second quarter of this year, are being rapidly deployed but require a balanced solution. The latest Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors further enhance AMD's unique Direct Connect Architecture and offer a superior balanced and scalable solution to support today's increasingly heterogeneous computing environments.

Superb virtualization performance

Through improvements to AMD's Direct Connect Architecture and innovative AMD-Virtualization™ (AMD-V™) technology, 45nm Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors build on AMD's legacy as the virtualization platform of choice, with the Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor already powering nine global OEM servers specifically designed for virtualization. The new processors deliver faster "world switch" time, which enhances virtual machine efficiency, and feature improved Rapid Virtualization Indexing, AMD’s innovation in AMD-V that reduces the overhead associated with software virtualization.

Good price/performance

The enhanced Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor delivers some of the most dramatic performance and performance-per-watt gains ever between AMD Opteron processor generations through the following: Significantly higher CPU clock frequencies in the same power envelope in comparison to previous generations of the Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor. This is the result of processor design enhancements, industry-leading AMD 45nm immersion lithography technology, and strong execution on processor design and validation. 2 A 200 percent increase in Level 3 cache size to 6MB to help speed memory-intensive applications like virtualization, database, and Java. 3 DDR2-800 memory support which delivers greater memory bandwidth than current AMD Opteron processors, and remains significantly more energy-efficient than Fully-Buffered DIMM technology found in competitive offerings. 4 Upcoming enhancements to the revolutionary AMD Direct Connect Architecture with coherent HyperTransport™ 3.0 technology, providing up to 17.6GB/s of bandwidth for processor-to-processor communication planned for Q2 2009.

Energy-efficiency

Already offering industry-leading x86 server processor performance-per-watt, 45nm Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors draw up to 35 percent less power at idle compared to the previous generation while delivering up to 35 percent more performance, and feature a number of new power-saving technologies. AMD Smart Fetch technology can help reduce power consumption by allowing cores to enter a "halt" state during processing idle times with zero impact on application performance and compliments AMD CoolCore™ technology, which reduces power to unused sections of each processor to further reduce power consumption.

Platform stability

45nm Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors continue AMD’s leadership as the only x86 server microprocessor manufacturer to serve 2P to 8P servers with a single architecture, while maintaining socket and thermal compatibility with the previous generation of Quad-Core and Dual-Core AMD Opteron processors. This helps customers reduce platform management complexity and costs and increase data center uptime and productivity. These new processors fit into the existing Socket 1207 architecture and are also planned for use in the upcoming "Istanbul" processor, the next generation of AMD Opteron processors.

Global OEM Support

Due in part to the AMD Opteron processor's status as the industry’s most manageable and consistent x86 server platform, global OEM and system-builder partners enjoyed a rapid validation process and are expected to begin shipping their next-generation systems powered by the enhanced Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor this month. The number of available enhanced Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor-based systems is expected to grow rapidly throughout this quarter and the first quarter of 2009.

Availability

The latest Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors at the 75-watt ACP ranging from 2.3 to 2.7 GHz are available immediately, with enhanced Quad-Core AMD Opteron HE (55-watt) and SE (105-watt) processors planned to follow in Q1 2009.

Upcoming 45nm desktop processors

AMD also plans to bring this higher-performance and more energy efficient 45nm processor technology to the desktop PC market in Q1 2009with the AMD platform codenamed "Dragon." This platform will be the second generation AMD performance desktop platform, featuring all next-generation components in comparison to the first generation AMD "Spider" platform released in 2008. The AMD "Dragon" platform is designed to harness the power of fusion by optimizing the performance of new 45nm AMD Phenom™ II X4 quad-core processors with award-winning AMD 700 Series chipsets and award-winning ATI Radeon™ HD 4000 series graphics.