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AMD releases quad-core Opterons.

Brian Ambrozy September 10, 2007 12:32 AM ET in Tech

Billing it as “the first native x86 quad-core microprocessor”, AMD today announced the Opteron beast that is intended to take back the performance crown from rival Intel.

Calling it the first “native x86 quad-core” is a dig at Intel’s “glued together dual core” method of producing their current quad core processors. According to their press release:

“Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors with AMD’s revolutionary Direct Connect Architecture introduce innovations that go beyond four x86 processing cores on a single die of silicon.”

Top tier server vendors Sun Microsystems, HP, Dell, and IBM announced servers based on the new Opterons today.

The press release mentions December as a general release time for the desktop quad core line called “Phenom”.

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5 Comments:

  1. Leonardo
    F@H Reign of Terror is back!
    10 Sep '07, 1:33 am

    Let's hope non-disclosure agreements are over and we can now start seeing real performance figures. Regardless, the next couple of weeks should prove interesting in the tech news.

  2. Thelemech
    DIVINEMECH Corp.
    10 Sep '07, 8:13 am
    Quoting Leonardo

    ...the next couple of weeks should prove interesting in the tech news.

    Definitely! I will be watching the developments with much scrutiny; as I may hold off on buying the Intel Quad 6600 , if the Barcelona(Quad Core Opteron) really proves to have a 40% improvement over the Intel Quads as AMD has been claiming it will.

  3. RWB
    Thank God for Blue Monsters
    10 Sep '07, 9:49 am

    I want reviews NOW damn it, they should have been pouring out seconds after the NDA lifted!

  4. Qeldroma
    Veteran Icrontian
    10 Sep '07, 10:21 am
    Quoting RWB

    I want reviews NOW damn it, they should have been pouring out seconds after the NDA lifted!

    Early returns

  5. Leonardo
    F@H Reign of Terror is back!
    10 Sep '07, 10:40 am

    Anandtech has a first stage assessment up as well. They are not nearly done with testing yet, so are not calling it a review. Definitely not full of praise, but not negative in tone either:

    Considering that AMD prices this Opteron 2350 under the Xeon 5345, AMD has an attractive price/performance offering for most applications.

    AMD's hopes for power consumption efficiency were on track it, appears:

    At idle, the Opteron 2350 platform uses significantly less power than the Xeon setup, a decrease of about 44%. While Intel will be able to drop its power consumption with the move to 45nm, the impact won't be great enough to close this gap.

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