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AMD releases its new Opteron 4000 server CPU

June 23, 2010

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Earlier this morning, Advanced Micro Devices has released its new Opteron 4000 server CPU, code named Lisbon. The new and faster processor is aimed at hyperscale data center environments and small-to-medium sized businesses that need a broader range of computing power to run their mission-critical applications.

Today's business customers need dense computing servers that are flexible, provide exceptional value and extreme power efficiency, said Margaret Lewis, director of software product marketing with AMD.

"Energy efficiency is key for them. In fact that’s often the first parameter they’re looking at,” added Lewis.

AMD's new Lisbon server processor includes features for virtualization, power management, DDR-3 memory and three power bands, of which one is a low 32 Watts of power consumption.

Three months ago, AMD launched its Opteron 6000 series server processors designed for the higher-end market with performance demands for environments with high-performance computing and large database configurations.

But with the Opteron 4000 series, Lewis said the chip maker is also targeting, besides cloud computing, the SMB segment, which is a market whose unique needs have been largely under served so far.

Overall, small and medium size businesses need something that is cost-efficient, scalable, easy to manage, and has a long shelf life, said Lewis.

She added that AMD’s past processor designs “have not given us the types of form factors that we would say could reach all aspects of the SMB market.”

The majority of AMD’s customers, whether enterprise or SMB, are highly concerned about power efficiency given that power costs are escalating even as new servers are not being deployed in data centres, said Lewis.

"AMD's new 4000 series offers us an opportunity to have a low-power, low-cost processor that could go into the form factors that are more desirable, especially for the small part of the SMB market,” said Lewis.

Lisbon is as full-featured as the 6000 is.

“We’re not telling the SMB market they have to buy a lower-powered processor in terms of richness of features to be successful,” said Lewis.

John Sloan, lead research analyst with London, Ont.-based Info-Tech Research Group said that three or four years ago, AMD was focused primarily on capacity with its multi-core processors and memory, producing offerings that were probably of more interest to customers with higher processing demands.

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Source: American Micro Devices.