AMD to launch Barcelona processors next month

Link: AMD to launch Barcelona processors next month
Filed under: Server News, Hardware News, Companies News, Technology News

Advanced Micro Devices is planning to launch its ‘Barcelona’ quad-core Opteron processors in August.

The first Barcelona models, which will be formally called Quad-Core Opteron, will be in competition with quad-core processors already released by Intel.

However AMD claims that Quad-Core Opteron is the first ‘native’ quad-core chip because all four cores are on a single silicon die. Intel’s quad-core processors comprise two dual-core chips packaged side by side.

The first Quad-Core Opteron processors to be shipped will run at clock frequencies up to 2GHz. They will be available in standard and low-power versions.

This is slower than some of Intel’s quad-core Xeon 5300 chips, but AMD plans to launch faster models in the fourth quarter.

The first servers using the chips will be released in September.

Intel plans to release its second-generation quad-core server processors in 2007.

Its ‘Harpertown’ server, part of Intel’s ‘Penryn’ family, promises to provide better performance, lower power consumption and lower manufacturing costs via a manufacturing process with 45-nanometer features.

AMD is only just now moving to a 65-nanometer process.

In recent years computer manufactures have moved from processors with a single processing engine, to dual-core models, in order to improve performance without consuming excessive amounts of power, along with corresponding amounts of waste heat.

As well as moving onto quad-core technology, octo-core models are also under development, with Sun Microsystems planning to introduce a 16-core ‘Rock’ chip in 2008.