AMD Demonstrates World’s First Native Quad-Core X86 Server Processor

AMD Demonstrates World’s First Native Quad-Core X86 Server Processor
AMD (NYSE: AMD) today demonstrated the industry’s first native quad-core x86 server processor, achieving four x86 processing cores on a single die of silicon. At the annual AMD Industry Analyst Forum, a server powered by four upcoming Quad-Core AMD Opteron™ processors (codenamed Barcelona), manufactured on 65nm silicon-on-insulator process technology, was shown utilizing all 16 cores. By delivering a consistent thermal envelope while adding two more processing cores, along with micro-architectural enhancements, AMD expects to significantly advance the performance-per-watt capabilities* of AMD Opteron processors.

“AMD is guided by an overarching strategy to reduce datacenter complexity and to deliver performance increases without forcing customers to endure disruptive platform transitions,” said Randy Allen, corporate vice president, Server and Workstation Division, AMD. “We discussed quad-core requirements with our customers and their end users, and determined that, as we did with the introduction of dual-core x86 processors in 2005, only a native quad-core x86 server processor would excel in the broad set of dimensions that matter to our customers. With the introduction of native quad-core x86 processors in the second quarter of 2007, AMD plans to again deliver exceptional technology based on the same customer-centric design principles that steered the development of our award-winning AMD dual-core server, workstation, desktop and mobile processors.”

Upgradeability from dual- to quad-core processors is expected to be as straightforward as it was from single- to dual-core with AMD, with unchanged thermal and electrical envelopes. The demonstration today was an example of this. The reference server platform was seamlessly upgraded to quad-core by replacing the server’s existing DDR2-based AMD Opteron processors with the new Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors and updating the BIOS.

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