AMD's Opteron debuts

Stacy Cowley, IDG News Service   Today’s Top Stories   or  Other Hardware Stories  

Dynamic Data Center and Virtualization Drives Operational Excellence at Emory Healthcare Windows Vista® Migration: What Really Happens? A Customer's Perspective Real-time collaboration and development with IBM Rational Team Concert streamlines any project Myth of the Million Dollar Database Case Study: AISO grows its "green" business Beyond consolidation: five reasons why you should start virtualizing SaaS Solutions for Remote Systems Management Compterworld Technology Briefing: Intelligent Users Use Business Intelligence Computerworld Report- Large Enterprises Pay More for IPAM Sign up to receive Hardware Resource Alerts

April 22, 2003 (IDG News Service) -- After nearly a year of hype and development, Advanced Micro Devices Inc. today set loose its new 64-bit Opteron processors, which the company hopes will attract buyers who seek the power advantages of 64-bit computing but are leery of the costs involved in adopting other 64-bit architectures.
AMD surrounded itself with partners at its New York launch event, including software and hardware vendor IBM, Linux vendors SuSE Linux AG and Red Hat Inc., and database leader Oracle Corp. Also in attendance was Microsoft Corp., which said it's on track to complete by year's end an Opteron-tailored version of its forthcoming Windows Server 2003 operating system.
IBM offered a major vote of confidence in Opteron by announcing it will begin selling in the second half of the year Opteron-based systems in its eServer product line. The company is the first top-tier server vendor to commit to developing around Opteron.
"Today, we're responding to our customers in this space who have been asking us for an IBM solution based on this type of technology," said Mark Shearer, IBM's vice president of eServer systems. "[Opteron] offers compelling performance at a competitive price."
"Industry-standard pricing" was a mantra of AMD executives speaking at the event. Based on the widely supported x86 instruction set, Opteron can run both 64-bit programs and the 32-bit programs prevalent in the industry today. Sunnyvale, Calif.-based AMD hopes that flexibility will attract customers who have so far avoided more-expensive 64-bit platforms.
Although Opteron isn't expected to compete directly with Intel Corp.'s 64-bit Itanium chips, which are based on a new explicitly parallel instruction computing architecture, AMD nonetheless took some shots at its biggest rival during the launch.
"By the end of this year, AMD will sell more AMD 64-bit-based platforms than our competitor has sold since launching its 64-bit platform years ago," said Marty Seyer, general manager and vice president of AMD's microprocessor business unit. "Why will the AMD Opteron processor succeed? Simply put, because we did it right."
AMD executives emphasized the niche Opteron will fill in offering customers a 64-bit system without requiring them to port existing applications.
"It is time for all of us in the technology industry to change our ways. No new technology without real customer benefits should be tackled," said AMD CEO Hector de J. Ruiz. "The cost of change must be minimized. New technology should not introduce new barriers. It should knock them down."
One customer speaking at the launch, Dan Gregoire, previsualization and effects supervisor at JAK Films Inc. in Nicasio, Calif., said Opteron-powered workstations are being used for development work his company is doing on the forthcoming Star Wars: Episode III

Continued...
1 | 2 | NEXT  

Reprinted with permission from

IDG.net
Story copyright 2008 International Data Group. All rights reserved.

Print this Story

Send Us Feedback

E-mail this Story

Digg this Story

Slashdot this Story

"The much-maligned Microsoft Zune apparently has the world's most powerful man as its fan. President-elect Barack Obama was seen using..." Read more... "In Thursday's..." Read more... Read more Hardware posts or See all Blogs

Windows users indifferent to Microsoft patch alarm, says researcher Tech jobs down sharply but not out Apple yanks antivirus advice from its Web site More top stories...

Microsoft slates 8 bug updates for year's final Patch Tuesday De Beers tries to force spoof news Web site offline over fake ad Microsoft confirms Yahoo's Lu to run online services

Review: The new MacBook Air, now with extra SSD goodness Thin as ever, the latest Air offers up to twice the storage and snappy performance. Cool Stuff: Your 2008 Holiday Gift Guide We've got an array of economical, expensive, and just plain weird tech gifts for your friends and family. Massive botnet returns from the dead, starts spamming The spam-spewing 'Srizbi' botnet that was shut down two weeks ago has been resurrected and is again under criminal control, say security researchers. Elgan: Why you can't trust 'friends' on Facebook Facebook is popular and growing -- especially with criminals. Here's why they love it. Windows 7 Get the latest news, reviews and more about Microsoft's newest desktop operating system More Continuing Coverage Windows 7 Voting Technology Google's Chrome browser Economy in turmoil: Latest news and tips iPhone 3G Bill Gates moves on Windows Vista A to Z Mac A to Z 2008 Salary Survey Find wage data for 50 IT job titles. More Special Reports 2008 Premier 100 IT Leaders 2007 Premier 100 IT Leaders 2008 Best Places to Work in IT 2007 Best Places to Work in IT 2008 Salary Survey 2007 Salary Survey 2006 Salary Survey 2008 IT Forecast 2007 IT Forecast 40 Years of Computerworld Top 12 Green-IT Users The FAQs About Going Green IT Schools to Watch iPhone: One Year Later Global Mobile Your Next Data Center Management: Reinventing IT Stop Data Leaks Web 2.0 Security Surviving Disasters Managing Storage Virtualization The Lean Storage Machine Storage on Trial Can Web 2.0 Save BI? Bypass These BI Potholes All Zones Business Continuity Zone The File Data Management Zone Security Management Zone The SAS Zone Business Intelligence and Analytics Zone The Enterprise Search Zone Software as a Service Zone The Security Zone See your link here

Learn-Fast Guide: Get Up to Speed on Green IT (Source: Computerworld) Whether it's in the front office or the server room, green thinking can save energy, trees and money. From the Editorial Staff at Computerworld, here's the latest thinking on greening your operations. Download this executive briefing  Virtualization Everywhere Download this white paper, free, compliments of Citrix. (Source: Citrix) Adoption of virtualization is concentrated among large enterprises, while adoption by mid-sized companies has been much slower. For these companies, the cost and complexity of server virtualization solutions has been a barrier. In this paper, we'll discuss how Citrix XenServer" provides simple, economical server virtualization for any size company. Download now! Download this white paper  Advances in SSL and Certificate Management Advances in SSL and Certificate Management View this webcast now! Go to the webcast  White Papers Read up on the latest ideas and technologies from companies that sell hardware, software and services. 8 Things You Need to Handle Today's Network Traffic Next-Gen Load Balancing: 3 Keys to Successful Delivery of Advanced Web Apps Building a Reliable and Dynamic Data Center with PAN Manager by Egenera View more whitepapers

• Windows users indifferent to Microsoft patch alarm, says researcher
• Microsoft slates 8 bug updates for year's final Patch Tuesday
• Tech jobs down sharply but not out
• More top stories 

Security Directions: Strategies and Tactics for Protecting Your Enterprise in 2009 Attend the Security Directions virtual event, with sessions available live on December 16, 2008 and available on-demand from December 17 though March 17, 2009. Some topics that will be covered include: Best Practices around Data Leak Prevention (DLP). What exactly is security due diligence and why does it matter? Cloud security and privacy. End-point security - rising gas prices have caused an increase in the number of remote workers, which leads to more security issues. Register now for this event that happens on December 16, 2008, but will also available on-demand from December 17 - March 17, 2009. Register Now!

Get Into Gear! Check out our new personal technology section -- TechGear -- for the latest on those cool gadgets that you just gotta have! Host Mike Elgan provides hands-on reviews and analysis of the stuff that makes IT fun. Head to TechGear