Advanced Micro Devices said on Wednesday that the amount of AMD-based supercomputers in the latest top 500 list by 15% sequentially. Apparently, the popularity of AMD Opteron processors with eight or twelve core increases among companies, who utilize high-performance computing (HPC) technologies.

Apparently, 33% of the top 100 HPC systems are based on the AMD Opteron processor. More than half of the 68 supercomputers based on AMD technology now feature the 8- and 12-core AMD Opteron 6100-series processor. Given such dynamics, it is easy to guess that several quarters from now the share of AMD-based HPCs will grow after the company begins shipments of its highly-anticipated Bulldozer-based Opteron processors code-named Interlagos and Valencia with up to sixteen and eight cores, respecitvely.

“The introduction of the AMD Opteron processor coincided with the HPC industry’s shift to x86 and cluster-based architecture, away from expensive proprietary or RISC-based systems. AMD provided the server technology that helped drive the democratization of supercomputing and has shown steadfast leadership in helping HPC break performance boundaries. Our new 16-core processor codenamed 'Interlagos' will add features specifically for HPC and offer the world’s highest core count for x86. In addition to CPUs, we are also now seeing adoption of our GPU technologies in HPC and believe this will be a significant area for further development," said Leslie Sobon, corporate vice president, product marketing, AMD.

But while AMD gains share in the market of ultra high end HPC systems, its share in the market of general-purpose servers and mobile systems is declining, which is why its overall CPU market share revenue is getting lower.

According to IHS iSuppli market tracking company, Intel during the first three months of 2011 accounted for 82.6% of global microprocessor (x86, RISC, other chips for PCs and servers) revenue, up 1.6% of share from the 81% it held in the fourth quarter of 2010. On a year-over-year basis, Intel gained 2%. AMD accounted for 10.1% of global microprocessor revenue in the first quarter of 2011, down from 10.9% in the fourth quarter of 2010, and down from 11.8% in the first quarter of 2010.

According to IDC, in Q1 2011 Intel commanded 80.8% unit shipments of x86 processors and AMD earned 18.9%, both flat compared to Q4 2010. VIA Technologies had 0.2% market share.

Tags: AMD, Opteron, Intel, x86