| AMD unveils three new dual-core
Opteron chips
6 March, 2006
By Liam Lahey
The goal may be to keep it cool but the dual-core chip market
is heating up with the news Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD)
has introduced three, dual- core Opteron processor chips for
x86 computing and performance-per-watt capabilities. The new
processors are designed to help minimize overall server power
consumption and cooling requirements.
The dual-core AMD Opteron processor Model 885 (for up to eight-way/16-
core enterprise-class servers) and Model 285 (for high performance
two-way/ four-core workstations and servers) are immediately
available. The third chip, Model 185 (for one-way/two-core
servers and workstations), is expected to be available within
30 days. All three run at 2.6GHz, officials said.
"AMD integrates two AMD Opteron processor cores onto
a single die, allowing them to communicate at full processor
speed," said Randy Allen, corporate vice president, server
and workstation division, for Sunnyvale, Calif.-based AMD.
"That means dual-core AMD Opteron processors are the
only native dual-core x86 systems available today for customers
who want efficient solutions for their data centres. Data
centre managers can fill racks with dual-core platforms without
worrying about increased electricity and cooling costs."
Dual-core AMD Opteron processors offer significant performance
gains while operating in the same power and thermal infrastructure
as single-core Opteron processors, the company said.
According to Michelle Warren, research manager for the Evans
Research Corp. (ERC), with respect to the timing of the release
it is the beginning of the final month in the first calendar
quarter. Thus, AMD is building off a successful quarter in
4Q05, and a successful year in 2005.
"The IT buying season is not as it is in Canada. Here,
we have seasonal shopping with traditionally strong first
and fourth quarters. In the U.S., it is more consistent throughout
the year. So for Canada, the timing of this announcement will
enable IT departments to consider, beta test the technology,
before implementing the technology later in the year (on a
widespread level)," she said. "For those organizations
that opt for an early- adoption, they will have a unique opportunity
to do so in the second and third quarters of this year."
However, because of the government-buying season in the first
quarter, and depending upon when the Tier One OEMs will have
shippable product, it will impact that market for Canadians,
Warren continued.
"Certainly, with AMD shipping inventory at the end of
March, the government customers of our system builder community
will not benefit from this technology this year," she
added.
Meanwhile, AMD's rivalry with Intel continues. Canadian-branded
PCs with AMD and Intel processors grew in 2005, however, the
growth that AMD experienced in 2005 bit into Intel's market
share, according to ERC's latest figures.
As Intel was the dominant player in 2005, this didn't come
as an unexpected surprise," she said. "The competition
will certainly intensify in 2006, as both vendors are strongly
committed to the system builder community and both want market
dominance."
Warren Shiau, senior IT analyst for The Strategic Counsel,
said the timing of this latest AMD announcement broadly follows
the company's timeline for updates of its 100, 200 and 800
series processors.
However, an interesting point is AMD's playing up of power
consumption and heat generation, he said.
"Coincidentally, many people do feel that certain Intel
implementations do have more heat and power issues than a
comparable AMD implementation, for instance, certain blade
configurations, but some of that has to do with chassis design
as well as processor performance, and to be fair, Intel is
doing a good job of outlining where it's going to reduce power
consumption and heat production," Shiau said. "The
newest 100, 200 and 800 series are super products that perform
great in every category.
"For the channel, street prices for Opteron have typically
been favorable versus Intel, so Opteron's pick up should continue
to rise as AMD is delivering a very good price, performance
(heat and power) package. For a white-box builder doing high
performance machines, these are going to be really attractive."
Opteron was designed to give AMD a crack at the corporate
x86 server market, Shiau told eChannelLine. AMD designed a
great chip, priced it right and has kept it up-to-date. The
impact has been to create an alternative to Intel.
"Corporate users are seeing faster product development
from both AMD and Intel because of the competition, and more
pricing leeway or flexibility from server vendors," he
noted. "Even Dell has been putting out floaters about
maybe in the future doing an AMD-based server. So the heat
is really on in this market."
Insofar as AMD's new Opteron dual-core chips are concerned,
a number of original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) have announced
support.
IBM said it would support the new processors in its servers
and workstation product lines, with the BladeCenter LS20,
e326m server, and IntelliStation A Pro. The LS20 blade and
e326m rack server will utilize the dual-core AMD Opteron processor
Model 285.
Sun Microsystems revamped and expanded its entire x64 AMD
Opteron processor-based server, workstation and High Performance
Computing (HPC) product lines with the new dual-core processors.
Sun's support of the AMD Opteron processor in its Sun Fire
x64 servers and workstations, including the Galaxy Sun Fire
X4100 and X4200 servers, and its recently announced Sun Ultra
40 Workstation, would continue, officials said.
Hewlett-Packard too will add the new chips across its portfolio
of AMD Opteron processor-based HP ProLiant servers and workstations.
Dual-core AMD Opteron processor Model 885 (for the four-processor/eight-core
ProLiant DL 585 and BL45p), and Model 285 (for the two-processor/four-core
ProLiant DL385 and DL145 G2 and the ProLiant BL25p and BL35p
server blades). HP said it would also match Model 285 with
the HP xw9300 Workstation that features multi-processing capabilities
and support for dual PCI-Express x16 graphics.
ERC's Warren said AMD has a strong following within the system
builder community. To increase its' share it AMD must continue
to focus on that market, maintain robust inventory levels,
and continue to bring innovative product to market.
"Intel is the current market leader and is firmly committed
to the system builder community. Intel is also an avid supporter
of channel marketing programs, and improving communication
with its customers. Likewise, Intel also has to maintain inventory
levels, quick-turnaround times, and bring innovative products
to market," she said. "In Q4 2005, AMD finished
the quarter with 48 per cent of Canadian-branded server shipments.
Intel had 52 per cent. AMD's shipments were up 14 per cent
annually." In 2005, AMD finished with 44 per cent market
share and Intel had 56 per cent, according to ERC. AMD's shipments
were up by 16 per cent, Warren said.
The dual-core AMD Opteron processor Model 885 is priced at
US$2,149 in 1,000-unit quantities and the Model 285 is priced
at $1,051 in 1,000-unit quantities. The dual-core AMD Opteron
processor Model 185 is scheduled to be available at month's
end; pricing information was not provided.
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