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Mon 10 Sep 2007, 23:30
AMD Introduces Quad-Core Opteron Processor
Barcelona finally here
September 10, 2007 - Today AMD introduced its Quad-Core Opteron processor. Finally. Barcelona is what the chip manufacturer calls a "native" Quad-Core, meaning that all four cores sit on a single die.
Dual-Processor (DP, 2P):
| Model | Clock speed | Power dissipation | Introduction price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quad-Core Opteron 2347 | 1.9 GHz | 75 W ACP | $316 |
| Quad-Core Opteron 2350 | 2.0 GHz | 75 W ACP | $389 |
| Quad-Core Opteron 2360 SE | 2.5 GHz | 105 W ACP | December 2007 |
Dual-Processor (DP, 2P), High Efficiency (HE):
| Model | Clock speed | Power dissipation | Introduction price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quad-Core Opteron 2344 HE | 1.7 GHz | 55 W ACP | $209 |
| Quad-Core Opteron 2346 HE | 1.8 GHz | 55 W ACP | $255 |
| Quad-Core Opteron 2347 HE | 1.9 GHz | 55 W ACP | $377 |
Four/Eight-Processor (4P-8P):
| Model | Clock speed | Power dissipation | Introduction price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quad-Core Opteron 8347 | 1.9 GHz | 75 W ACP | $786 |
| Quad-Core Opteron 8350 | 2.0 GHz | 75 W ACP | $1019 |
Four/Eight-Processor (4P-8P), High Efficiency (HE):
| Model | Clock speed | Power dissipation | Introduction price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quad-Core Opteron 8346 HE | 1.8 GHz | 55 W ACP | $698 |
| Quad-Core Opteron 8347 HE | 1.9 GHz | 55 W ACP | $873 |
Energy Efficiency, Virtualization, and Investment Protection
According to Hector Ruiz, chairman and CEO of AMD, performance, energy efficiency, virtualization, and investment protection are the most important features of the new server processor.
Tests by the Tech Report show that the new Barcelona-based Quad-Core Opterons bring major performance gains over their Dual-Core predecessors while fitting comfortably into the same power and thermal envelopes. However, Barcelona's gains in performance per clock aren't quite what we expected, especially in Floating-Point-intensive applications. As a result, Barcelona is sometimes faster, sometimes slower, and oftentimes the equal of Intel's Core microarchitecture, MHz for MHz. Given the current clock speed situation, that's a tough reality.
Others worry about the low clock speeds, but praise the architecture. However, they found the Barcelona to be faster than Intel executing Floating-Point calculations (FP), and slower on integer instructions.
Compared clock to clock, AMD is now on par with Intel's Core Xeon processors. However, when it comes to raw performance, the current Barcelona processors with their low clock speeds are lagging.
In power-efficient performance AMD is taking the lead. That and pricing could make the new Opteron processors a perfect fit for the booming blade market.
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