Even though the forthcoming code-named Magny-Cours microprocessors with twelve cores will feature two times more processing engines than predecessors, its power consumption will remain on approximately the same level compared to currently available six-core AMD Opteron “Istanbul” chip, the company has revealed.

“AMD designed Magny-Cours chips to draw the same power as Istanbul chips,” said Pat Conway, a member of AMD's technical staff, in a presentation at the Hot Chips conference at Stanford University, reports ComputerWorld web-site.

When asked about the ways of retaining power consumption of Magny-Cours on the same level with six-core AMD Opteron, the representative for AMD explained that the new twelve-core chip works at lower clock-speed and also sports new power management features. Even though Mr. Conway declined to reveal the clock-speed of twelve-core AMD Opteron, it is known that six core chips consume about 75W at 2.60GHz clock-speed. 

AMD Magny-Cours processor will be the first chip for the AMD G34 “Maranello” platform designed for Opteron processors 6000-series with up to 16 cores, quad-channel memory interface, 2 or 4 sockets, up to 12 memory modules per socket and some server and enterprise-specific functionality. Magny-Cours microprocessors feature two six-core dies on one piece of substrate.

In 2011 AMD plans to release a successor for Magny-Cours code-named Interlagos, which will be based on Bulldozer micro-architecture, built using 32nm process technology and contain up to 16 cores.

Tags: AMD, Opteron, Istanbul, Interlagos, Magny-Cours, 45nm, 32nm