AMD adds new Shanghai server chips

AMD has expanded its 45nm Opteron processor line-up with five new chips designed for greater power efficiency, and a further two offering greater performance.

The new quad-core chips extend AMD's Shanghai Opteron server processors, which were officially launched in November 2008.

The chipmaker pledged at the time that high-efficiency (HE suffix) and high performance (SE suffix) models would ship in the first quarter of 2009.

AMD said that the quad-core Opteron HE processors offer unrivalled performance-per-watt and cost efficiencies for datacentre customers. The five chips have clock speeds ranging from 2.1GHz to 2.3GHz and fit within a 55W ACP envelope.

ACP, or Average CPU Power, is a measurement of the average power consumption while handling typical workloads.

Servers using the new processors are available immediately from HP and Rackable Systems, while Dell and Sun Microsystems are expected to have availability later in the first quarter.

AMD also introduced two 2.8GHz Opteron SE models to the Shanghai line-up. These chips have a higher 105W ACP rating and are aimed at the most performance-intensive datacentre workloads. These are available immediately in three new systems from HP, according to AMD.

The mainstream Shanghai Opterons run at clock speeds up to 2.7GHz with a 75W ACP rating.

AMD plans to introduce new processors in the second quarter of 2009 with an even lower ACP rating than the newly announced HE Opterons. These will be aimed at the unique demands of cloud computing environments.