Vendors demo Quad-Core platforms
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Vendors attending the Computex Taipei trade show display platforms that demonstrate the power of AMD's forthcoming Quad-Core Opteron processors.
Three vendors attending the Computex Taipei trade show this week are displaying platforms that demonstrate the power of AMD's forthcoming Quad-Core Opteron processors.
AMD's new processors, code named Barcelona, are expected to boost performance and performance-per-watt by as much as 50 percent to 80 percent on a broad range of server applications over current-generation AMD Opteron processors. The company expects to release the processors later this summer.
In addition, the quad-core processors are designed to be compatible with all existing AMD Opteron processor-based systems using low-power DDR2 memory and also enable new platform capabilities.
The three platforms on display this week from Supermicro, TYAN and Uniwide ' all members of the AMD Validated Server program ' are designed to take advantage of a new feature in Barcelona processors called Dual Dynamic Power Management. This feature delivers power independently to a computer's CPU and to the memory controller to provide users with higher performance and better power management, AMD officials said.
Dual Dynamic Power Management will let solutions providers and information technology managers 'keep their performance at peak on the processor when they need it, and if something is not processor-intensive, they can run at full tilt on the memory controller and keep the CPU throttled down,' said Ron Myers, AMD Validated Solutions' divisional manager.
'The net effect of that is that you're going to be able to optimize performance and optimize your power management,' he said.
AMD's Barcelona processors will allow Supermicro to provide incredible compute density in a four-processor blade server, said Alex Hsu, chief sales and marketing officer at Supermicro. The company offers a range of high-end servers, motherboards, chassis and computer accessories.
AMD's Quad-Core Opteron processors are based on the company's Direct Connect Architecture, designed to help users leverage their systems that run on second-generation Opteron processors. These systems can be upgraded seamlessly by upgrading the computer's basic input/output system or BIOS and dropping in the new processor. Both generations of processors feature the same socket, chipsets and thermal envelopes, AMD officials said.
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