Advanced Micro Devices on Monday refreshed the lineup of multi-core AMD Opteron processors for servers with higher speed offerings. In addition, the company said that various manufacturers of servers are rolling-out ultra-dense machines that provide ultimate performance while remaining physically small featuring latest-generation multi-core Opteron chips.

AMD introduced five new Opteron central processing units (CPUs) designed for multi-processor/multi-core server applications. Three new twelve-core offerings are Opteron 6180 SE (2.5GHz, 105W average CPU power [ACP], 140W thermal design power [TDP]), Opteron 6176 (2.3GHz, 80W ACP, 115W TDP) and Opteron 6166 HE (1.8GHz, 65W ACP, 85W TDP). Two new eight-core offerings are Opteron 6140 (2.6GHz, 80W ACP, 115W TDP) and Opteron 6132 HE (2.2GHz, 65W ACP, 85W TDP). All chips feature quad-channel DDR3 memory controllers, four HyperTransport 3.0 links and can work in up to 4-way configurations. Pricing of the products vary from $591 to $1514, which is pretty low for multi-chip-capable CPUs.

“These new server CPUs deliver greater performance than we’ve ever had before. When we launched the AMD Opteron 6000 Series platforms last year, we eliminated the ‘4P tax’ and met market demands for higher performance-per-dollar-per-watt. Our customers’ benchmarks and testimonials bear out these improvements, and these five new parts—and the rave reviews—prove that we continue to deliver on our vision,” said Patrick Patla, vice president and general manager of server business at AMD.

AMD's key server partners including Acer, Dell and HP are launching new or refreshed AMD Opteron 6000 Series platform-based systems this quarter, powered by these new twelve- and eight-core AMD Opteron processors. systems powered by the new AMD Opteron processors are available now from OEMs and system builders, including Acer, Appro, Cray, Colfax, Dawning, Dell, HP, Microway, NCS Technologies, Inc., Nor-Tech, Penguin, SGI, Silicon Mechanics and ZT Systems.

Dell unveiled its PowerEdge C6145 server, which includes two 4-way mainboards and comes in 2U form-factor. The machine can thus employ 96 processing cores in just 2U size. Other partners of AMD will follow with ultra-dense servers.

The new processors are socket-compatible with the AMD Opteron 6000-series platform, as will be AMD’s upcoming sixteen-core Bulldozer-based Opteron processors.

Tags: AMD, magny cours, Opteron, 45nm