AMD Low-Power Opteron HE CPUs Find Server Homes

We've certainly seen AMD's power-sipping Opteron CPUs find their way into big name servers before, but Advanced Micro Devices seems particularly proud of this launch. The Sunnyvale, California-based chip maker today proclaimed that five of its newest low-power 45nm quad-core Opteron HE processors were now widely available, with the whole lot aiming to "meet the industry's rising demand for low power, cost-saving data center technology."

All five of the CPUs operate at 55-watt ACP (Average CPU Power) and tout clock speeds between 2.1GHz and 2.3GHz. According to AMD, server platforms based on the Opteron HE CPU can offer "up to 20 percent lower idle power compared to similarly configured competing systems." As of now, the chips are ready for order in eight server systems from HP and a few systems from Rackable Systems; firms such as Dell and Sun are expected to join the festivities later this quarter.

If, for whatever reason, these five just aren't doing it for you, AMD has also made known that "even lower ACP processors" should be out in the second quarter of this year in order to tackle the "unique demands of cloud computing environments."