AMD ships '16-core' Bulldozer-powered Opteron 6200

We seem to have mislaid our definition of fashionably late -- a fortnight after the promised "October" launch, systems packing AMD's Bulldozer-powered Opteron 6200 (formerly Interlagos) will commence shipping to enterprise customers. If you haven't been paying too much attention, you might just believe the claim about it having 16 cores -- Bulldozer's architecture has eight two-core modules rather than 16 independent ones. Despite the short delay and the conspicuous claims, the company reckons it's 84 percent faster, 73 percent more efficient and uses half the power of the equivalent Intel Xeon. At the same time, Sunnyvale firmed up news on the Valencia (Opteron 4200) and announced 2012's Opteron 3000 platform with the new Zurich chip -- designed to run on low-power web hosts. Enterprise customers can read the PR we've got after the break and then begin placing orders; the rest of us will have to keep waiting to see if Andre Yang can push his FX all the way to 9GHz.

[Thanks, Khan]

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New AMD Opteron™ Processors Deliver the Ultimate in Performance, Scalability and Efficiency

SUNNYVALE, Calif. -11/14/2011 AMD (NYSE: AMD) today announced immediate launch and availability of its AMD Opteron™ 6200 and 4200 Series processors (formerly code-named "Interlagos" and "Valencia"). The new AMD Opteron processors are designed to give enterprises:

Better performance for business with up to 84 percent higher performancei
Increased scalability for Virtualization with up to 73 percent more memory bandwidth, enabling servers to host more virtual machines and also handle increasing workloadsii
More efficient economics for the Cloud with half the power per core , requiring 2/3 less floor spaceiv and up to 2/3 lower platform pricev

"Our industry is at a new juncture; virtualization has provided a new level of reliable consolidation and businesses are now looking to the cloud for even more agility and efficiency. We designed the new AMD Opteron processor for this precise moment," said Paul Struhsaker, corporate vice president and general manager, Commercial Business, AMD. "The wait for the most anticipated new product and architecture for servers is over. Leading OEMs are now offering cloud, enterprise and HPC customers a full suite of solutions based on the industry's most comprehensive server processor portfolio, the new AMD Opteron family of processors which deliver an inspired balance of performance, scalability and efficiency."

AMD also announced the expansion of its 2012 roadmap with the addition of the new AMD Opteron 3000 Series platform. The AMD Opteron 3000 Series platform is targeted to the ultra-dense, ultra-low power 1P Web Hosting/Web Serving and Microserver markets. The first processor will be the 4-8 core CPU code-named "Zurich", expected to ship in the first half of 2012. "Zurich" is based on the "Bulldozer" architecture and leverages the new Socket AM3+. The AMD Opteron 3000 series offering is designed for hosting customers who require dedicated servers for their customers. These cloud and web hosting customers appreciate the cost savings associated with a lower cost infrastructure, yet still want to deploy a server-class product with reliability and security features and server OS certification.

IT customers of all sizes can today take advantage of new servers based on the engineering and business advantages of AMD's new "Bulldozer" architecture, which has been engineered for the leading datacenter workloads. Systems from Acer, Cray, Dell, HP, IBM and many additional channel and motherboard partners are expected on the market in the coming days and weeks.

AMD is also introducing embedded server processors designed for high-end embedded systems such as storage, telecommunications and networking infrastructure. These models are planned to be available to match the embedded market's longevity need.
Key Facts, Performance and Technical Detail

89 percent greater performancevi than the most popular server processorvii from the competition at the same priceviii
An extremely comprehensive processor portfolio scaling from 4- to 16-cores
Unmatched power efficiency with power envelopes that are consistent with previous generation platforms and as low as 4.375W per coreiii
Up to 24 percent to 84 percent better performance on key cloud, virtualization and HPC workloadsix
Highest 2P server TPCC scorex
Lower cost per virtual machine (VM)xi
Up to 4 memory channels with up to 1600 MHz memory
The only x86 processor to support ultra-low voltage 1.25v memory
Supports up to 12 DIMMs per CPU for up to 384GB memory per CPU
Up to Four x16 HyperTransport™ technology (HT3) Links at up to 6.4GT/s per link

Together, these new features allow AMD to deliver unparalleled performance, scalability and efficiency for highly threaded workloads like HPC, database, virtualization, and especially, the emerging web and cloud market.

Full performance details can be found at www.amd.com/opteronperformance or read about the latest here.