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AMD to Offer Different Flavours of Opteron Processor

by Anton Shilov
12/18/2002 | 11:51 AM

AMD is reportedly set out its server plans, according to this news-article over The Inquirer. Apparently, there will be different versions of AMD Opteron CPUs, not only one, as it was said before. AMD is very serious about its server offerings and, just like Intel, prepares to launch a number of different products intended for various market segments. Of course, in the 2003 line-up there will be both x86-64 as well as traditional AMD chips.

Barton MP – K7 core, 512KB of L2 cache, 266MHz FSB, for not expensive 1-2 way 1U servers.
SledgeHammer III - K8 core with three HyperTransport links, 1MB of L2 cache, destined for 1-way servers and workstations.
SledgeHammer DP – K8 core with three HyperTransport links, 1MB of L2 cache, intended for 2-way servers and workstations.
SledgeHammer MP – K8 core with three HyperTransport links, 1MB of L2 cache, meant for 4/8-way enterprise systems.

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It is interesting to note that all AMD Opteron processors will incorporate three HyperTransport links, even those, which are proposed for singe-CPU systems. I do not know if there are going to be any differences in the number of pins on the devices, but at the moment I do not think it is very likely. System integrators who build 4/8-way servers will definitely not try to deceive AMD and purchase cheaper processors for 1 or 2-way systems. Since all the processors are to be sold under the same brand-name “Opteron”, but AMD may bring additional product tags like “MP” or “DP” so that their customers were easier to distinguish between the CPUs that have no architecture differences at all. Unfortunately, there is no official information about this at present.

The family of the server x86-64 CPUs to be launched in 2004 was also changed quite tangibly compared to what we saw about a month ago (there was no line-up, but was a single processor, as we revealed over here):

Athens: K8 core with DDR-II SDRAM support and 1MB of L2 cache, made using 90nm (90 nanometer) fabrication technology and is intended for 4/8-way servers.
Troy: the same processor, but meant for dual-way computers.
Venus: a beautiful chip for PCs with only 1 microprocessor inside.

As you may see, there will be three incarnations of Athens, but with totally different code-names due to unknown reason. Maybe AMD will try to make them a bit different compared to each other somehow? Say, by turning on and off various technologies, like Intel did with their Pentium 4 and Xeon processors that utilised the same core, but on the latter, the Hyper-Threading technology was switched on.

It is obvious that by the time the Athens and its family will be released in the first half of 2004, Barton processors for servers will be fully discontinued, so, the Venus and SledgeHammer III should not be too expensive compared to the other x86-64 brethrens for servers.

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