AMD Releases Four New Quad-Core Opterons

Advanced Micro Devices introduced its fastest quad-core server chips to date, two new 2-socket and two new 8-socket processors dubbed Opteron SE.
Following a highly publicized setback late last year in its initial ramp of quad-core processors caused by a silicon glitch, Sunnyvale, Calif.-based AMD and OEM partners finally hit the market with B3-revision chips in March.

After splashy launch parties around the globe way back in September of last year, the ramp of the product codenamed Barcelona is finally proceeding apace with the introduction of two new 2.4GHz and two new 2.5GHz parts. 

Adding clock speed to its 8-socket quad-core portfolio are the new 2.4GHz 8358 SE and the 2.5GHz 8360 SE.

"In the 2-socket space, we're talking about the HPC folks, people doing genome-mapping for instance, where they need every last bit of clock speed and performance from each core," said AMD server chip manager Steve Demski last week.

"In the 8-socket space, the demographic is customers doing the really intense number-crunching against those big enterprise databases."

Demski said AMD expects Sun and Hewlett-Packard, who already offer 8-way servers built on previously released quad-core Opterons, to lead the way with new configurations featuring the 8358 SE and 8360 SE devices.

The new devices are benchmarking particularly well in terms of floating point performance, a traditional Opteron strength, Demski said, but the two new 8300 parts have also nailed the highest SAP (NYSE:SAP)-SD two-tier score in eight-socket servers and AMD is touting the 8358 SE and 8360 SE for data center scalability.

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