AMD's Low-Power, Six-Core Opteron EE Eyes Cloud Computing

Slowly but surely, cloud and dense computing environments are becoming more and more popular. With services such as Apple's MobileMe and Google's own application suite living on the web, it's not hard to see why these tactics are becoming more pervasive. And wouldn't you know it--AMD is chomping at the bit to make sure it gets in on the bandwagon early.

Today, the company is introducing the immediate availability of the new six-core Opteron EE processor at 40W ACP. Designed specifically to provide plenty of power for cloud computing environments without the power draw of more gamer-centric processors, this unit promises up to 31% higher performance-per-watt over standard Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors. AMD has been seriously focusing on power drain of late, even going so far as to speak publicly about the errors in battery life reporting made by modern notebook makers.


Patrick Patla, vice president and general manager, Server and Workstation Division, had this to say about the new chips:

"It’s important for our industry to look at how technology is being used and where customers have emerging needs. The AMD Opteron EE processor enables OEMs to deliver energy-sipping servers that don’t compromise on power management, virtualization or performance features.  It is specifically designed to help address the challenges that are generating a great deal of discussion these days - building and running very dense data centers for Web services, while doing more with less."

There's no mention of a price, but those interested should be able to hit up their favorite silicon shop today and find out. Here are a few highlights about what you'll get:

    *  Many customers requiring this very low power processor deploy dense, large-scale IT projects where system power trumps raw performance and every watt of power savings can have significant positive impact on the bottom line.
    * AMD offers a wide range of energy-efficient processors; customers now have 15 low and very low power server processor choices available.
    * All of AMD’s low power processors are fully-featured and available with the same AMD Virtualization (AMD-V™) technology and AMD-P features for advanced virtualization and power savings capability as standard power versions.
    * This 40W ACP processor is currently being integrated in custom solutions programs and will be available from system builders for cloud and Web 2.0 customers where density and low power are key considerations.