X-bit labs

AMD Expands Opteron Line with Low Power Chips.

Category: CPU

by Anton Shilov

[ 02/17/2004 | 09:03 AM ]

Advanced Micro Devices today unveiled six new 64-bit chips for servers and workstations boasting with reduced power consumption. The processors are available in two clock-speeds now, but as the time goes, more and more low-power AMD Opteron CPUs will hit the market.

The introduction of Opteron EE and Opteron HE processors effectively broadens market segments the Sunnyvale, California-based microprocessor maker can address with its AMD64 products. With power consumption of 30W (EE) and 55W (HE) processors Advanced Micro Devices can position such processors for applications like blade-servers and probably some kinds of communicational equipment.

Intel last year proposed blade servers based on Xeon processors with reduced power consumption, however, the industry’s response was generally lukewarm. Currently Intel offers its Pentium M processors for low-power servers and communicational equipment, however, originally designed for notebooks, Intel’s Pentium M CPUs do not support SMP and can only work in 1-way machines.

AMD currently offers 6 versions of its low-power AMD Opteron processors – three series (depending on the number of processors supported by system) are available in two speed flavours. The EE models are clocked at 1.40GHz, while the HE model functions at 2.00GHz.

The AMD Opteron processor models 846 HE and 840 EE are priced at $1514 in 1000-unit quantities. The AMD Opteron processor models 246 HE and 240 EE are priced at $851 in 1000-unit quantities. The AMD Opteron processor models 146 HE and 140 EE are priced at $733 in 1000-unit quantities. AMD is immediately taking orders for the processors, which are expected to ship worldwide within 30 days.