Most IT executives are in a challenging economic environment. On the one hand, they are faced with requests for IT services and innovations to support business growth. On the other, they may find themselves faced with shrinking budgets that create a need to consolidate infrastructure, conserve energy and lower costs.

A solution can be found in the widespread availability of the enhanced 45-nanometer Quad-Core AMD Opteron™ processor and a rich portfolio of servers now shipping from leading computer manufacturers.

The new processors, formerly code-named “Shanghai” and officially launched in November 2008, deliver as much as 35 percent more performance with as much as a 35 percent decrease in power consumption at idle, at prices comparable to those of the previous generation based on 65nm process technology. 

“Flawless execution in bringing the 45-nanometer Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor to market early results in a new performance leader for x86 servers,” says Randy Allen, senior vice president, Computing Solutions Group, AMD. The new processor was originally scheduled for release in the first quarter of 2009, but AMD began shipping production-quality chips to manufacturers in October 2008 and is currently in volume production.

Another benefit of the new processor is that it is socket-compatible with two previous generations of AMD Opteron processors.

Performance and Value

Although an evolutionary design, the new processor features substantial enhancements such as higher frequencies, L3 cache tripled from 2MB to 6MB, faster DDR2-800 memory and one of the industry’s most advanced 45nm fabrication processes. These enhancements were built into the newest AMD Opteron processors to help boost performance in emerging applications such as cloud computing and virtualization and in demanding workloads such as Web hosting, database management, Java serving and high-performance computing.

Priced comparably to the previous generation of processors, the new AMD Opteron processors should appeal to value-conscious buyers as well.

“The current economy means that server buyers will be looking for the best-possible deal, in terms of cost of acquisition as well as cost of ownership,” says John Spooner, senior analyst, Technology Business Research. “I think the newest AMD Opteron processors have an advantage in these areas.  AMD has always been aggressive when it comes to pricing, and the new processors promise a significant increase in performance-per-watt. That is what customers will be looking for.”

The new Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors range from 2.3GHz to 2.7GHz at 75-watts ACP, with additional speed bumps to come. More versions, at 55 and 105 watts, are also available. Later in 2009, AMD plans to introduce a processor code-named “Istanbul,” a six-core server processor that is compatible with the current socket-F generation.  AMD plans to follow this in 2010 by introducing a processor code-named “Maranello,” an entirely new G34-socket design.

A Virtualization Powerhouse

The gains in virtualization performance will be especially welcome to IT executives engaged in consolidation and efficiency projects. Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors already power nine global OEMs’ servers specifically designed for virtualization.“Virtualization has always been a strong point of AMD Opteron processors,” says Bart Arnold, divisional manager, Product Marketing for Servers and Workstations, AMD.

AMD has made several enhancements to AMD Virtualization™ (AMD-V™) hardware-assisted virtualization technology, including shorter “world switch” time, which speeds switching between guest operating systems, and improved Rapid Virtualization Indexing, designed to reduce the overhead of software virtualization. These enhancements complement the new processor’s larger cache, faster memory and higher frequencies, leading to outstanding virtualization performance.

Obtaining such performance gains can come without a penalty in energy consumption, as the new processors continue AMD’s leadership in energy efficiency.

AMD Smart Fetch technology can help reduce power consumption, by allowing unused cores to enter a “halt” state during idle times, with no impact on application performance or data already in the cache. AMD CoolCore™ technology, which reduces power to unused sections of each processor to further reduce power consumption, has also been extended to the L3 cache, so parts of the cache can be turned off independently to save power.

Broad Industry Support

Buyers will be able to choose from a wide selection of enhanced Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor-powered servers from the major OEM manufacturers, many of which include proprietary innovations aimed at optimizing performance and energy efficiency. More than 25 such systems are available now from global OEMs such as Dell, HP, IBM and Sun Microsystems, and many more will be released during the first quarter of 2009.

• HP, which offers the broadest line of AMD processor powered servers, has introduced nine servers supporting the new processors—three blades and six rack servers, from the lowest-cost to the highest-performing—and says it plans to refresh its entire AMD processor-based ProLiant line this year.

• Dell has introduced eight new AMD processor-powered PowerEdge servers optimized for virtualization.

• IBM has introduced two System x rack servers and two BladeCenter servers in two-, three- and four-socket configurations.

• Sun has enhanced its line of Sun Fire x64 servers and Sun Blade systems with the new AMD processors.

• More than 85 server motherboards and bare-bones servers based on the new processors are available from leadingserver infrastructure providers such as ASUS, Supermicro and Tyan, ensuring an ample supply for system builders and channel solution providers.

The wide availability of the new servers is enabled by the high processor yields, a rigorous prelaunch validation process and the fact that manufacturers received volume shipments prior to AMD’s launch. There’s also the vaunted consistency of the proven AMD Opteron processor architecture.

The consensus on AMD’s latest-generation server processors is clear: great execution    of a design that will help drive IT innovation while improving efficiencies and lowering costs.

(This article is excerpted from the February 2009 issue of AMD Accelerate magazine. To read the article in its entirety, go to http://www.AccelerateResults.com)