AMD Debuts 8 And 12-Core Opteron 6000 Processors
Intel rocked the processor world a few weeks ago with the introduction of the six-core Core i7-980X Extreme Edition, but now we're beginning to wonder if there's any stop to this "core" madness. AMD has just shook things up even further with the new Opteron 6000 series platform, boasting Direct Connect Architecture 2.0 and plenty of power for server applications.
AMD is gloating about a 119% increase in performance here, all while maintaining a low price and low power drain. What's most interesting, though, is that this platform features the world’s first 8- and 12-core x86 processor for the high-volume 2P and value 4P server market. Already, leading OEMs including HP, Dell, Acer Group, Cray, and SGI are introducing new systems based on this platform, and the bullet points here are pretty astounding. Speaking of which...
AMD is gloating about a 119% increase in performance here, all while maintaining a low price and low power drain. What's most interesting, though, is that this platform features the world’s first 8- and 12-core x86 processor for the high-volume 2P and value 4P server market. Already, leading OEMs including HP, Dell, Acer Group, Cray, and SGI are introducing new systems based on this platform, and the bullet points here are pretty astounding. Speaking of which...
“As AMD has done before, we are again redefining the server market based on current customer requirements,” said Patrick Patla, vice president and general manager, Server and Embedded Divisions, AMD. “The AMD Opteron 6000 Series platform signals a new era of server value, significantly disrupts today’s server economics and provides the performance-per-watt, value and consistency customers demand for their real-world data center workloads.”
The new AMD Opteron 6000 Series platform features include:
- The industry’s only 8- and 12-core server processors performing at up to two times the level of AMD’s previous generation 6-core processors, including an 88 percent increase in integer performance4 and a 119 percent increase in floating point performance2.
- Enhanced integrated memory controller supporting four channels of DDR3 memory for up to a 2.5x improvement in overall memory bandwidth.5
- Thirty-three percent more memory channels per processor than competitive 2P solutions.6
- 50% higher DIMM capacity compared to previous generations, with up to 12 per processor, increasing the available memory overall and improving virtualization, database and HPC applications.
- AMD 5600 Series chipset with I/O virtualization capability, HyperTransport™ 3.0 technology and PCI Express® 2.0.
- Removal of the “4P tax”, since the same processors can be used in both 2P and 4P designs, and 4P-capable processors are now the same price as 2P-capable processors, bringing greatly improved value to the 4P space.
- Unprecedented price/performance. In a comparison between a best-performing 2P competitive platform versus a similar best-performing 4P AMD-based platform, customers can recognize up to double the performance and more than 10% lower total processor price.7
- Significant new power management features including a C1E power state to conserve energy when idle, the Advanced Platform Management Link allowing APML-enabled platforms to be remotely monitored for power and cooling, and AMD CoolSpeed technology, which automatically reduces p-states if a specified temperature limit is exceeded.
- A wide range of power and performance options with no compromise on the available feature sets.
- A legacy of consistency and stability. The new AMD Opteron platform is chipset- and socket- compatible between 2P and 4P and will be compatible with the planned processors based on the next-generation AMD server processor core, code-named “Bulldozer”.
