AMD Launches New Quad-Core AMD Opteron™ Processors for One-Socket Servers and Workstations

Platforms from HP, Dell, and Cray to deliver world-class performance and efficiency to customers ranging from SMB's to some of the world’s largest supercomputers—

Customer demand for higher performing, uni-processor x86 solutions, AMD (NYSE: 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 is committed to helping commercial customers who rely on 1P server and workstation solutions to take advantage of the same enterprise-class performance and energy-efficiency that power the largest global businesses,” said Patrick Patla, director, Server and Workstation Business, AMD. “From entry-level servers and complex workstation environments to some of the largest supercomputers in the world, the new Quad-Core AMD Opteron 1300 Series processors are designed to address the key customer priorities of performance, performance-per-watt and performance-per-dollar.”

Enterprise-level Capabilities for 1P Solutions:

The new Quad-Core AMD Opteron Models 1352 (2.1GHz), 1354 (2.2GHz), and 1356 (2.3GHz) processors are designed to empower small to mid-market customers to meet growing IT and budgetary demands and increase business productivity. With the enhanced computing capabilities of AMD ’s native quad-core architecture in the same socket and thermal requirements as previous AMD Opteron 1000 Series processors, and industry-leading power management and virtualization innovations such as Enhanced AMD PowerNow!™ technology and Rapid Virtualization Indexing, Quad-Core AMD Opteron 1300 Series processors provide small and mid-size customers an energy-efficient yet powerful computing platform that can maximize IT resources and grow with their business demands.

“Customers looking to maximize application performance at an affordable price point can leverage the HP ProLiant ML115 G5 server and HP xw4550 workstation which are based on the AMD Opteron 1000 Series processors,” said Paul Gottsegen, vice president, marketing, Industry Standard Servers, HP. “HP has the largest AMD Opteron-based server portfolio in the industry, and the new Quad-Core AMD Opteron 1300 Series processors increase the value provided by our server solutions.”

Customers have increasingly recognized the superior performance and efficiency benefits of the AMD Opteron processor in one-socket systems. Based on the 2008 first quarter numbers from IDC¹, the AMD Opteron processor now powers 14.3 percent of the one-socket x86 server systems worldwide. Additionally, AMD ’s market share in one-socket x86 server systems in the U.S. has grown to 23.7 percent in the first quarter of 2008. This includes an average market share increase of 2.7 percent in the U.S. over the past three quarters.

"Dell understands that SMB customers require simplified computing solutions that do not sacrifice the performance or reliability needed to grow their businesses," said Sally Stevens, director of Power Edge Servers, Dell Product Group. "Dell’s Power Edge T105 entry-level server combined with the price/performance capabilities of the Quad-Core AMD Opteron 1300 Series processor enables us to deliver an economical and simple IT solution for small business owners."

Scalability and Performance for High-Performance Computing
Built on AMD ’s unmatched Direct Connect Architecture which helps eliminate the bottlenecks associated with front-side bus architectures, Quad-Core AMD Opteron 1300 Series processors deliver the world-class performance, scalability and overall system efficiency necessary to power one of the world’s largest high-performance computing (HPC) systems. By upgrading to the new Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors, Oak Ridge National Laboratory more than doubled the compute performance of its Cray XT4™ system, code-named ‘Jaguar,” to more than 260 teraflops to help advance scientific research.
“AMD ’s industry-leading native multi-core architecture and Same Socket Technology help Cray deliver the world’s most scalable and upgradeable supercomputers, enabling our customers to tackle the most challenging scientific and engineering problems of our time,” said Peter Ungaro, president and CEO of Cray. “The collaboration between Cray and AMD continues to bring new levels of scalability and sustained performance to high performance computing, as shown by Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s recent upgrade to its Cray XT4 system to Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors, which is one of the fastest and most efficient supercomputers in the world today.”