New Opterons for single and eight-way systems

 

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By Alun Williams

Posted on 1 Jul 2003 at 12:25

AMD has announced the 100 and 800 series of releases for its its 64-bit Opteron processor. They relate to single and up to eight-way systems, complementing the 200 series for dual processor systems that was originally launched.

The 800 Series is aimed at heavy-duty, back-end enterprise computing, such as running databases and ERP (enterprise resource planning) applications. The 100 Series is targeted at one-processor server systems or workstations running intensive apps, such as data modelling or multimedia editing.

The Opteron is based on AMD's eighth-generation processor core, which is the industry's first 64-bit, x86 architecture. A desktop equivalent - the Athlon64 - is expected in the Autumn.

Intel has also just released its new 64-bit server processor, the Itanium 2 - Intel unveils the Itanium 2 and new Xeon MP processors.

The key point of 64-bit processing is that it gives increased computing power, both in terms of the amount of information that can be crunched in one go and the range of memory addressing possible. The Opteron also, however, transparently runs existing 32-bit applications, which is designed to smooth the path to 64-bit computing.

'AMD continues to lead the industry in providing flexibility to our workstation and server customers,' said Marty Seyer, general manager of AMD's Microprocessor Business Unit. 'We delivered on our promise to provide the highest-performing 2P and 4P server processor in the world. We are now offering IT managers a complete range of 64-bit solutions that are designed to protect investments in 32-bit applications and lower their total cost of ownership.'

The Opteron was officially unveiled back in mid-April - and see also our special report from the New York launch.

It was always intended that the Opteron would eventually come in three flavours - 100, 200 and 800 series (for single, dual and up to eight-way systems). At launch, however, only the 240, 242 and 244 were available.