AMD (NYSE: AMD) today introduced the Quad-Core AMD Opteron™ processor, the world’s most advanced x86 processor ever designed and manufactured and the first native x86 quad-core microprocessor.
Designed from inception for the most demanding datacenters, Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor-based servers from global OEMs and system builders can deliver breakthrough capabilities to customers in a time of dramatically escalating performance-per-watt emphasis.
Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors with AMD’s revolutionary Direct Connect Architecture introduce innovations that go beyond four x86 processing cores on a single die of silicon. Critical considerations for today’s most challenging business requirements inspired Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor innovations: energy efficiency with a 50 percent increase in integer and floating-point performance,1 enhanced virtualization performance, and investment protection via a customer-centric approach enabling non-disruptive transitions from dual- to quad-core within the same power and thermal envelopes to help keep infrastructure costs down.
“Today marks one of the great milestones in microprocessor achievement as AMD again raises expectations for industry-standard computing,” said Hector Ruiz, chairman and chief executive officer, AMD. “We’ve worked closely with our customers and partners to design a new generation of processing solutions embodied by today’s Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor – a four-way winner in performance, energy efficiency, virtualization and investment protection. Early customer response has been extremely positive.”
Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor-based systems from global OEM and system-builder partners begin shipping this month and are expected to increase in number through the remainder of the year. AMD Phenom™ processor solutions, which will leverage many of the same benefits of this innovative, next-generation architecture, are expected to be available for the desktop market in December. Due in part to the industry’s most stable x86 server platform, more than 50 socket compatible Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor-ready system choices are on the market today from tier one OEMs, all of whom are publicly supporting today’s introduction.
“Today more customers choose ProLiant for their AMD processor-based server blades than any other vendor by a factor of more than 2 to 1. HP offers customers a broad portfolio built on innovative designs to address customer needs in the areas of power, virtualization and cost,” said Paul Miller, vice president, marketing, enterprise storage and servers, HP. “With today’s launch of Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors, we can help customers bring new levels of efficiency to their infrastructure as we broaden our AMD Opteron processor-based family of servers.”
“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.”
“Dell and AMD share a commitment to delivering industry-leading performance, performance-per-watt, and the most energy-efficient product designs to help our customers focus on driving their business forward,” said Brad Anderson, senior vice president, Dell Product Group. “Dell’s ability to seamlessly deliver the benefits of AMD’s Dual Dynamic Power Management technology means our customers can get more today and for future growth in the AMD processor-powered Dell PowerEdge 2970 and Energy Smart 2970.”
“IBM was the first global OEM to support AMD Opteron processors in 2003. Today our relationship is delivering powerful and energy-efficient business performance computing solutions” said James Gargan, vice president, Brand Management System x & BladeCenter, IBM. “Our x86 systems feature IBM’s X-Architecture innovation, such as Xcelerated Memory Technology, to help optimize Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor capabilities for peak system performance. We look forward to bringing new products to market with AMD later this year to help strengthen IBM’s position as the world’s top server vendor2.”
Systems based on Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors are also being announced today by a host of other manufacturers, including Appro, Egenera, Gateway, Rackable Systems, Supermicro and Verari.
Additionally, AMD is providing the channel with a tremendous opportunity to be able to offer their customers Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor-based solutions very soon after launch. AMD Validated Server Program platforms are available today through distribution, empowering channel partners with the opportunity to be early to market with solutions.
AMD introduces Average CPU Power (ACP)
AMD also today introduced the Average CPU Power (ACP) metric, which represents processor power usage, including cores, integrated memory controller, and HyperTransport™ technology links, while running a suite of typical and relevant commercially useful high utilization workloads to be more indicative of the power consumption that end-users can expect. ACP is a useful metric for data center operators when estimating power budgets to size their datacenters. AMD will continue to provide thermal design power (TDP) specifications to platform designers in AMD power and thermal datasheets.
AMD is introducing Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors today at the 55- and 75-watt ACP. For system designers, AMD will continue to state its TDP specifications.
New Standard in Energy Efficiency
As datacenters in the U.S. face the potential of doubling their energy consumption by 20113, new Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors introduce the world’s most energy-efficient x86 architecture, bolstered by a variety of new power-saving technologies, including:
- AMD CoolCore™ Technology, for reducing energy consumption by turning off unused parts of the processor;
- Independent Dynamic Core Technology, an enhancement to AMD PowerNow!™ technology, allowing each core to vary its clock frequency depending on the specific performance requirement of the applications it is supporting; and
- Dual Dynamic Power Management (DDPM), which provides an independent power supply to the cores and to the memory controller, allowing the cores and memory controllers to operate on different voltages, determined by usage. DDPM is available in most Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor-based platforms being introduced today.
“Microsoft and AMD are working together to drive innovation, performance and energy efficiency across the datacenters and development environments,” said Bill Laing, general manager of Windows Server Division at Microsoft Corp. “With 64-bit multi-core technology, Direct Connect Architecture and built-in virtualization, AMD Opteron processors continue to provide Microsoft Windows customers with an innovative platform. Looking ahead, we believe Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008 and Visual Studio 2008 running with Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors will provide a compelling development and deployment platform to drive customers’ dynamic IT environments.”
Optimal Virtualization Performance
Datacenters depend on virtualization software as an essential tool to consolidate server workloads, operate more securely, and enable disaster recovery. Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors with Direct Connect Architecture excel in virtualized environments because of the integrated memory controller4 for reduced memory latency, and Rapid Virtualization Indexing, a new AMD innovation in AMD Virtualization™ technology designed to reduce the overhead associated with software virtualization. Rapid Virtualization Indexing takes functionality that was previously performed in software and greatly accelerates it by performing those functions within the CPU to help enable near-real time application performance.
Investment Protection
Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors maintain compatibility with the socket and thermal envelopes of Second-Generation AMD Opteron processors to enable a seamless customer upgrade path. AMD’s common core strategy empowers customers to scale with one AMD architecture to reduce platform management complexity and increase datacenter uptime and productivity.
Outstanding Performance
Continuing the legacy of the AMD Opteron processor family, Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors introduce several new ground-breaking technologies enabling impressive results across a suite of benchmarks. Within comparable thermal bands, Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors outperform the competition on several industry-standard benchmarks including: SPECfp®_rate2006, SPEC®int_2006, SPECompM®2001Base, STREAM, Fluent and LS-DYNA. For more details on the performance of Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors, please visit http://www.amd.com/opteronperformance.
Visit AMD on the Web
For more information on the Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor including FAQs, development tools, online press kits and other general information, please visit http://multicore.amd.com. Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor pricing can be found at http://www.amd.com/pricing.
About AMD
Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD) is a leading global provider of innovative processing solutions in the computing, graphics and consumer electronics markets. AMD is dedicated to driving open innovation, choice and industry growth by delivering superior customer-centric solutions that empower consumers and businesses worldwide. For more information, visit www.amd.com.
Cautionary Statement
This release contains forward-looking statements concerning, among other things, future and planned products, technologies, specifications, features, performance and introductions schedules, and availability and number of Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor-based systems, which are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are commonly identified by words such as “would,” “may,” “expects,” “believes” “plans,” “intends,” “projects” and other terms with similar meanings. Investors are cautioned that forward-looking statements in this release are based on current beliefs, assumptions and expectations, speak only as of the date of this release, and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the company’s current expectations. Risks include the possibility that Intel Corporation’s pricing, marketing and rebating programs, product bundling, standard setting, new product introductions or other activities targeting AMD’s business will prevent attainment of AMD’s current plans; AMD will require additional funding and may not be able to raise funds on favorable terms or at all; customers stop buying AMD’s products or materially reduce their operations or demand for its products; AMD will be unable to develop, launch and ramp new products and technologies in the volumes and mix required by the market and at mature yields on a timely basis; global business and economic conditions will worsen; AMD will be unable to transition to advanced manufacturing process technologies in a timely and effective way; and AMD will be unable to maintain the requisite level of investment in research and development and capacity, investors are urged to review in detail the risks and uncertainties in AMD’s Securities and Exchange Commission filings, including but not limited to the Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2007.
1 The comparison presented above is based on SPECint_rate2006 and SPECfp_rate2006 tests of the Dual-Core AMD Opteron processor Model 2222 against results for the Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor Model 2350 under submission to SPEC as of Sep 6, 2007. For the latest results, visit http://www.spec.org/cpu2006/results/. SPEC and the benchmark names SPECint and SPECfp are registered trademarks of the Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation. Competitive benchmark results stated above reflect results published on www.spec.org as of Sep 6, 2007.
2 Based on Q207 IDC worldwide server tracker results
3 EPA report to Congress on Server and Data Center Energy Efficiency – Aug 2, 2007 – http://www.energystar.gov/ia/partners/prod_development/downloads/EPA_Datacenter_Report_Congress_Final1.pdf
4 An AMD innovation first introduced to x86 processors with the AMD Opteron processor in April 2003.
AMD, the AMD Arrow logo, AMD Opteron, and combinations thereof, AMD PowerNow, AMD Virtualization and AMD CoolCore are trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. SPEC, SPECfp, SPECint and SPECompM are registered trademarks of the Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation. HyperTransport is a licensed trademark of the HyperTransport Technology Consortium. Other names are for informational purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective owners.
