AMD today announced its first processor intended for 2-way servers and workstations based on the latest Barton core. The Athlon MP 2800+ is now available from the company itself as well as from numerous system-builders all around the planet.

The first ever chip using Barton core for business and enterprise computing runs at 2133MHz, the same core-clock as on the Athlon MP 2600+ microprocessor, however, the new one boasts with 512 instead of 256KB L2 cache. Just like all its predecessors, AMD Athlon MP 2800+ chip utilises 266MHz EV-6 bus, is made using copper 0.13 micron fabrication process in Fab 30, Dresden, Germany, and incorporates 128KB of L1 cache.

The AMD Athlon MP processor 2800+ is priced at $275 in 1000-unit quantities. Below you may find the table, where you can compare the prices of AMD Athlon MP processors with Intel’s Xeon CPUs and AMD Opteron 2xx chips.

AMD Opteron (24x) and Intel Xeon (DP) Current Official Pricing
AMD CPU Model	Price		Intel CPU Model	Price
Opteron 244 (1.80GHz)	$794		Xeon 3.06GHz (533MHz)	$690
Opteron 242 (1.60GHz)	$690		Xeon 3.00GHz (400MHz)	$658
Opteron 240 (1.40GHz)	$283		Xeon 2.80GHz (533MHz)	$455
AMD Athlon MP and Intel Xeon (DP) Current Official Pricing
Athlon MP 2800+	$275		Xeon 2.80GHz (400MHz)	$433
-	-		Xeon 2.66GHz (533MHz)	$284
Athlon MP 2600+	$201		Xeon 2.60GHz (400MHz)	$273
-	-		Xeon 2.40GHz (533MHz)	$209
Athlon MP 2400+	$153		Xeon 2.40GHz (400MHz)	$198
Athlon MP 2200+	$131		-	-
Athlon MP 2000+	$116		-	-

AMD Athlon 2800+ and AMD Opteron 240 (1.40GHz) processors are priced nearly equally. Probably Opteron 240-based system will cost more than an Athlon MP 2800+ powered computer, so, I wonder, who of these two can offer us more performance? Unfortunately, AMD's own benchmarks cannt answer this question.