provided by: 
Originally published at Internet.com
Processor player AMD this week unveiled the latest iteration of its Opteron server processor, and mapped out plans for continuing its meteoric rise to prominence in the server market.
To that end, the company said it had finished designing native quad-core Opteron processors, and reiterated that current-generation Opteron systems would have an upgrade path to quad-core, since the quad-core processors are expected to use the same processor socket, without significant increases in heat generation and power requirements.
AMD said it plans to ship quad-core processors to customers starting in mid-2007.
In the meantime, this week's six new processors are Opteron models 1218, 2218, 8218, 1220 SE, 2220 SE, and 8220 SE. The "SE" is indicative of a higher-power, frequency-optimized version. (Some future processors also may carry a similar "HE" designation, which indicates a low-power model.)
The xx18 models are all 2.6GHz parts, while xx20 SE processors operate at 3.0GHz.
AMD said the newly released crop of Opterons offers greater power efficiency, DDR2 support, and a maximum 95W thermal design power envelope. The processors also support AMD's flavor of processor virtualization.
As you might have noticed, AMD also is moving to a new processor naming system beginning with this week's products. Accordingly, all future Opterons will adopt a four-digit model numbering system, with the first digit representing the number of cores, while the second indicates the socket generation.
Thus, all the new processors are either 12xx, 22xx, or 82xx. The latter two rely on Socket F (1027) while the 12xx-class Opterons are Socket AM2-compatible. (The final two numbers in each model name refers to relative power.)
The launch, of course, comes amid a period of tooth-and-nail fighting between AMD and Intel for the desktop, server and notebook PC processor market. A great deal of that fighting has taken place in the server market, where AMD has made tremendous inroads within the past years.
"Customers trust AMD for critical server applications, as evidenced by our record Q2 2006 AMD Opteron processor sales, and in 2006, AMD expects to double the number of AMD Opteron processor-based systems offered from global and regional tier-one OEMs," said Randy Allen, corporate vice president for AMD's server and workstation division. "Today's announcement represents continued innovation along the customer-directed path we blazed years ago; we provide the complete x86 processor architectural standard for others in the industry to emulate and have planned a seamless upgrade path to quad-core processors."
Pricing ranges from $749 per processor (in 1,000-unit quantities) for the Opteron model 1218, up to $2,649 for the 8220 SE.
Author: Christopher Saunders
Read article at Internet.com site