AMD Sets the New Standard for Price, Performance, and Power for the Datacenter

[btarunr]

AMD announces availability of a new server platform featuring the world's first 8- and 12-core x86 processor for the high-volume 2P and value 4P server market. The AMD Opteron 6000 Series platform addresses the unmistakable needs of server customers today - workload-specific performance, power efficiency, and overall value - while delivering more cores and more memory for less money. Leading OEMs including HP, Dell, Acer Group, Cray, and SGI are introducing new systems based on this highly scalable and reliable platform.

"As AMD has done before, we are again redefining the server market based on current customer requirements," said Patrick Patla, vice president and general manager, Server and Embedded Divisions, AMD. "The AMD Opteron 6000 Series platform signals a new era of server value, significantly disrupts today's server economics and provides the performance-per-watt, value and consistency customers demand for their real-world data center workloads."



The new AMD Opteron 6000 Series platform features include:

• The industry's only 8- and 12-core server processors performing at up to two times the level of AMD's previous generation 6-core processors, including an 88 percent increase in integer performance4 and a 119 percent increase in floating point performance.
• Enhanced integrated memory controller supporting four channels of DDR3 memory for up to a 2.5x improvement in overall memory bandwidth.
• Thirty-three percent more memory channels per processor than competitive 2P solutions.
• 50% higher DIMM capacity compared to previous generations, with up to 12 per processor, increasing the available memory overall and improving virtualization, database and HPC applications.
• AMD 5600 Series chipset with I/O virtualization capability, HyperTransport 3.0 technology and PCI Express 2.0.
• Removal of the "4P tax", since the same processors can be used in both 2P and 4P designs, and 4P-capable processors are now the same price as 2P-capable processors, bringing greatly improved value to the 4P space.
• Unprecedented price/performance. In a comparison between a best-performing 2P competitive platform versus a similar best-performing 4P AMD-based platform, customers can recognize up to double the performance and more than 10% lower total processor price.7
• Significant new power management features including a C1E power state to conserve energy when idle, the Advanced Platform Management Link allowing APML-enabled platforms to be remotely monitored for power and cooling, and AMD CoolSpeed technology, which automatically reduces p-states if a specified temperature limit is exceeded.
• A wide range of power and performance options with no compromise on the available feature sets.
• A legacy of consistency and stability. The new AMD Opteron platform is chipset- and socket- compatible between 2P and 4P and will be compatible with the planned processors based on the next-generation AMD server processor core, code-named "Bulldozer".

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[pantherx12]

Gota love AMD.

 

[WhiteLotus]

Amd are certainly pumping CPUs out into the market.

 

[brandonwh64]

i want a 12 core

 

[chinese_farmer]

i want a 12 core

and... You can get 12 physical AMD cores for the price of 12 VIRTUAL Intel cores :O

 

[p_o_s_pc]

i want the 6128 nice to see some low prices..kinda makes me feel better about the desktop prices on the new chips when they come out

 

[DaJMasta]

WTF AMD. We aren't even up to 6 with the desktops and you're already giving servers 12?

 

[btarunr]

WTF AMD. We aren't even up to 6 with the desktops and you're already giving servers 12?

That's the point, you aren't even up with 6-core. For servers, the more cores, the merrier. These chips are 4P capable. So you'll have 48-core 2U servers. Ready to serve that many clients at the cost of three or four servers.

 

[Ripper3]

WTF AMD. We aren't even up to 6 with the desktops and you're already giving servers 12?

Server processors make them more business than desktop processors do, and they take better advantage of larger number of cores, so why not? How many times have you sat wondering how much faster your internet experience would be with more cores? Oh, and how many games truly take advantage of such a large number of cores anyway?

 

[Fourstaff]

Server processors make them more business than desktop processors do, and they take better advantage of larger number of cores, so why not? How many times have you sat wondering how much faster your internet experience would be with more cores? Oh, and how many games truly take advantage of such a large number of cores anyway?

Crunchers need a lot more cores than 6

 

[Ripper3]

Crunchers need a lot more cores than 6

Fair enough, but then again, I always assumed someone wanting to set up a serious crunching/folding rig would likely make something out of a workstation, more CPUs with multiple cores, and still have space for a graphics card in there.

 

[toyo]

Are these 8-12 cores models still on 45nm??

 

[p_o_s_pc]

Are these 8-12 cores models still on 45nm??

yes they are
http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/K10/AMD-Opteron 6128 HE - OS6128VAT8EGO.html

 

[Hunt3r]

And soquet..
AM3?

 

[btarunr]

And soquet..
AM3?

Socket G34; 1974-pin LGA. http://www.techpowerup.com/?66043

A G34 motherboard:

 

[Lionheart]

I luv you AMD

 

[toyo]

So they have the same TDP, 140W-ish for (older to be retired now) 4, 6 and 12 cores? That's kinda strange, on the same process, with pretty much the same tech, isn't it? And a pretty high 2,3 GHz speed...

 

[Fourstaff]

And soquet..
AM3?

Server sockets (G34 I believe) so AM3 is not compatible

 

[Hunt3r]

''/..
hehe

 

[devguy]

I know the 12 core processor is a straight up duct tape mod of two Istanbul dies. But is the 8 core chip a duct tape mod of two Shanghai cores?

The reason I ask is because if the 8 core is native, then that leaves the option open to soon see a duct tape 16 core server processor.

 

[btarunr]

I know the 12 core processor is a straight up duct tape mod of two Istanbul dies. But is the 8 core chip a duct tape mod of two Shanghai cores?

The reason I ask is because if the 8 core is native, then that leaves the option open to soon see a duct tape 16 core server processor.

Yes it is, but unlike Intel's way of MCM. One die can talk to the other directly over a 16-bit HyperTransport link (to access the memory it controls, multi-threaded tasks, etc), while the two dies on say Pentium D needed to talk to each other over FSB (over the northbridge), so much higher latency.

 

[Ripper3]

That explains why these are designed for a system with a maximum of four processors, rather than a maximum of eight, it's using up the additional links between processors that would make it capable of eight processors in a a system.
Still, shouldn't be long before someone starts packing eight cores onto a single die, and as you said Devguy, making 16 core processors soon after that.

 

[a111087]

8 core for 266??? lol, i bet you will not see that from Intel

 

[a_ump]

i wonder if AMD plans to move over to that socket for desktops? if so...i see aftermarket cooler manufacturers having a lil more difficulty making their product intel and amd compatible. That socket is so...rectangular lol

 

[extrasalty]

Dirk M has kicked AMD in shape. Intel is next