AMD, Partners Showcase Quad-Core Chips

by Anton Shilov
06/05/2007 | 10:30 PM

Several partners of Advanced Micro Devices have demonstrated the company’s yet-to-be-launched quad-core AMD Opteron microprocessors, which are based on the new micro-architecture at Computex Taipei trade-show. This is the first time when AMD allows its partners to demo the code-named  Barcelona chips.

Platforms displayed from Supermicro and Uniwide, participants in the AMD Validated Server program, are designed to take advantage of a new feature enabled by “Barcelona” processors called dual dynamic power management, which can deliver power independently to the CPU and to the memory controller to enable greater performance and better power management. Other partners to demonstrate the new AMD Opteron processors with four processing engines are Asustek Computer and Tyan.

The new AMD Opteron processors code-named Barcelona are based on the company’s next-generation micro-architecture and will be produced using 65nm process technology. Among the highlights of AMD’s new chips the manufacturer lists shared L3 cache, 128-bit floating point units (FPU), support for dual-channel DDR2 memory and other innovations.

According to AMD, quad-core AMD Opteron processors will processors are expected to deliver up to 50% to 80% performance and performance-per-watt improvements on a broad range of server applications over similar current generation AMD Opteron processors.

“As this pinnacle in server processing is unveiled, AMD is thrilled to empower the AMD64 ecosystem to address real priorities such as power management and virtualization to help customers do more with less,” said Randy Allen, corporate vice president, Server and Workstation Division at AMD. “Those buying Second-Generation AMD Opteron processors today can take advantage of the seamless upgradeability designed into our high performing Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors when they become available later this year and do so within the same power and cooling infrastructure. This is the level of investment protection and transition planning our customers and the industry have come to expect from AMD.”