Noctua today released four new CPU coolers for Intel Xeon and AMD Opteron processors. Optimized for use in dual socket systems, the new DX (Dual Xeon) and DO (Dual Opteron) versions of Noctua's highly successful NH-U12 and NH-U9 series introduce the premium quality quiet cooling performance that has become synonymous with Noctua to the world of professional workstations and servers. "Maximum cooling performance at minimum noise levels and excellent reliability can be particularly important when it comes to high-end workstations and special server applications", explains Mag. Roland Mossig, Noctua CEO. "Due to the ever-growing demand for our Xeon and Socket F mounting kits, we decided to design new, customized versions of our coolers that are completely tailor-made for use on Intel Xeon and AMD Opteron systems, especially dual socket configurations. Enter the DX/DO series!"

AMD would be releasing 45nm silicon fabricated series of the quad-core Opteron processor based on the newer Shanghai core. Like its desktop PC counterpart, the Deneb core, it features 6 MB of L3 cache along with some enterprise-specific features. They will be designed for high-uptime and energy efficiency. AMD banks heavily on the performance efficiency and virtualization capabilities of these processors. There are primarily two types of these processors based on the multi-processor capabilities: the 2000 series 2-way processors and the 8000 series 8-way processors. The former supports two-socket systems while the latter is designed for dense 2+ socket environments, where up to 8 Opteron processors could work in tandem. The processors continue to have Socket-F (s1207) interfaces, hence the entire lineup retains its DDR2 memory standard.

Interestingly, AMD did not rework the system interface for all its newer chips. Across the vast lineup of 20 models, only four support the newer HyperTransport 3.0 interface with 4400 MT/s interconnects. The rest continue to use the 2000 MT/s interconnects. It could be mid-2009 by the time AMD launches its own enterprise-segment chipsets, which could also be the time when the current leading player, NVIDIA launches its newer nForce Professional lineup for the Opteron. Since current chipsets from both NVIDIA and Broadcom feature only the older HyperTransport 2000 MT/s interfaces, it could explain why most of these chips feature it.

The chipset division of AMD really is reminiscent of former ATI Technologies that jumped into the business of making chipsets looking at rival NVIDIA's success with nForce series. After being acquired by AMD, the chipset division started making chipsets under the AMD banner. AMD has had a good amount of success with its recent 7-series chipsets for the desktop platform. It has managed to snatch a 20% market share away from NVIDIA which even today leads in market share for platform core-logic technologies for AMD. Not only have they had a desktop line of nForce products but also an equally popular enterprise chipset for the Opteron platform in the form of nForce Professional series server and workstation core-logic.

AMD today introduced four new Quad-Core AMD Opteron SE processors to help IT managers take a new approach to "scaling up" their datacenter in order to address demanding enterprise-computing environments. Rather than invest in traditionally large and expensive enterprise-class proprietary hardware, the new Quad-Core AMD Opteron SE processors empower businesses to affordably and easily scale up a datacenter by moving to servers that can offer enterprise-class functionality at industry-standard pricing.

Addressing customer demand for higher performing, uni-processor x86 solutions, AMD today introduced three new Quad-Core AMD Opteron 1300 Series processors for one-socket servers and workstations. Global tier-one OEMs including HP and Dell plan to incorporate the new processors into upcoming platforms, and global supercomputer leader Cray is now shipping Quad-Core AMD Opteron 1300 Series processor-based Cray XT4 systems and upgrading some of the world's fastest supercomputers to incorporate Quad-Core AMD Opteron 1300 Series processors.

AMD today announced growing industry support for the Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor among global OEMs continues with IBM's launch of three updated System x servers. Designed to address customer priorities such as energy efficiency, performance, scalability, and virtualization, the Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor-based servers from IBM offer an exceptional power-efficient platform for today's most demanding datacenters.

Sun Microsystems today announced the availability of its first Sun Fire and Sun Blade systems powered by Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors, bringing new capabilities, increased performance and expanded scalability to customers that purchase or upgrade to these quad-core systems.

AMD today introduced the industry's first energy-efficient x86 server processors with four processing cores and an integrated memory controller all in a low 55-watt ACP thermal envelope. Blade and rack systems based on five new low-power Quad-Core AMD Opteron HE (Highly Efficient) processors are now widely available from global OEMs and solution providers.

In a briefing today AMD disclosed a conservative road map for 45nm server processors using six and twelve cores that will gradually start to ship starting from Q1 2009. The new processors will be manufactured in a 45 nm process that will be introduced with the Shanghai quad-core later this year. Shanghai will deliver performance boost of about 20% over Barcelona thanks to the new process, the doubled overall cache size and the 800MHz DDR2 memory controller. In the second half of 2009, AMD intends to ship a single-die 6-core Socket F (1207) processor code-named "Istanbul". Offered for two- and four-socket systems, the chip will likely utilize AMD's HyperTransport 3.0 technology and increased shared L3 cache from 2MB to 6MB. In two years time from now AMD is promissing a completely new platform. Called the "Maranello" platform, it will bring new 6-core "Sao Paulo" CPUs with 6MB of L3 cache, as well as the dual-die 12-core "Magny Cours" processor with 12MB L3 cache. Both processors will be built in 45nm, with DDR3 memory support and HyperTransport version 3.0 interconnect. AMD will couple these CPUs with motherboards that use its own RD890S and RD870S northbridges as well as the SB700S southbridge.

Delivering new levels in performance scalability, virtualization performance and energy efficiency, AMD announced customers can get the Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor today in systems from HP as well as other system providers. The recently-launched HP ProLiant G5 platforms represent the first of many systems that are expected to be available in the coming weeks from global OEMs and system builders based on the Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor.

AMD has just released a statement detailing the latest developments regarding their Quad-Core Barcelona processors.

The topics are regarding:

• For the initial ramp up "hundreds of thousands" processors were promised.
• TLB cache issues
• Quad-Core AMD Opteron availability
• AMD Opteron market share

MSI Announces Motherboards and Server Barebones Supporting AMD Quad-Core Opteron

Along with the new generation AMD Opteron processors (code-named Barcelona), MSI has launched its new server products - K9NU Speedster server board and K1-106 rack server.

Based around the nForce 3400 chipset, K9NU-Speedster Series motherboards and K1-106 Series server barebones support single AMD Opteron 2200 series quad-core processors. K9NU-Speedster Series also provide memory bandwidth up to 8.5GB/s (DDR2-533) or 10.5GB/s (DDR2-667). XGI Volari Z7 graphic processor with 16MB video memory can meet users' needs without adding a graphics adapter. However, both motherboards have two PCI-E x16 slot supporting NVIDIA SLI technology for future expansion.