News

AMD Unveils 12-Core Chip

• By Rutrell Yasin
• March 29, 2010

Advanced Micro Devices released a new server platform for the high-performance computing market, offering 8- and 12-core processors that provide more memory, performance and management features than previous AMD processors.

AMD Opteron 6100 Series platform with Direct Connect Architecture 2.0, provides 8- and 12-core server processors performing at up to two times the level of AMD's previous generation 6-core processors, AMD officials said.

With the latest announcement, AMD is attempting to move ahead of rival chipmaker Intel by offering more cores and memory for less money

On March 16 Intel launched its latest generation of the Xeon 5600 line of processors, with up to six cores designed to increase performance and energy efficiency, and two security features intended to help secure transactions and virtualized environments.

"As we are scaling the number of cores – we're going from six cores to 12 cores -- you get an overall balanced system by increasing the speed between the processors," said Gina Longoria, director of product management of AMD's Server and Workstation division.

AMD plans to unveil a 16-core processor, code-named Interlagos, next year.

Acer Group, Cray, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, and SGI are introducing new systems based on the 8- and 12- core platform, which was code-named Magny-Cours.

AMD also launched the SR5600 Series Chipset/G34 and C32 Sockets that supports four Double Data Rate 3 memory channels. The new sockets will replace AMD's DDR2-designed Socket F.

Additional memory channels will boost cloud computing, database, high-performance computing and virtualization environments that require a larger memory footprint, Longoria said.

The eight-core processors range from $266 to $744, while the 12-core chips range from $744 to $1,386 available in quantities of 1,000 units. AMD unveiled five eight-core and five 12-core processors.