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AMD announces 40W six-core Opteron

Published on 1st September 2009 by Gareth Halfacree

The new Opteron processors from AMD feature six processing cores but retain the 40W power draw of their quad-core predecessors.

AMD this weekend introduced a new Opteron series featuring six processing cores and a rather amazing 40W power draw.

As reported over on Maximum PC, the processors - which are aimed at the same server market as rival Intel's Xeon chips - are designed to be low-power units for use in blade servers and dense rack environments. Impressively, the 40W ACP is the same as the companby's quad-core processors released back in April, meaning that you get an additional two processing cores for free - electrically speaking.

Accusing rival Intel's Xeon chips of ditching features in favour of a lower power draw, AMD's Brant Kerby claims that the low power consumption of the new range does not come at the cost of reduced "memory speed, bus support, hyperthreading, or cache size."

The price point of the new chips has not yet been confirmed, but it's the low ACP is thought to come at a premium compared to the company's existing quad-core 40W Opteron units.

The low power draw is indicative of the impressive strides made in processor technology ove the past few years: AMD's director of business development John Mure has pointed out that a mere six years ago single-core chips were drawing 58W, with the new Opteron series coming out at a positively minuscule 6.67W per core.

Where server technology leads, the mainstream will follow: accordingly, 2010 is likely to bring a range of low-power cool-running six-core chips from AMD - and Intel isn't likely to take the challenge lying down.

Does the thought of a six-core chip drawing just 40W fill you with desire, or would you need more details on clock speeds and pricing before you were prepared to be impressed? Share your thoughts over in the forums.

12 Comments

Discuss in the forums Reply

Skiddywinks 1st September 2009, 10:18

Details before I pass judgement. But low power, hexacore chips might be excellent overclockers when the mainstream versions hit.

l3v1ck 1st September 2009, 10:22

Quote:

AMD's Brant Kerby claims that the low power consumption of the new range does not come at the cost of reduced "memory speed, bus support, hyperthreading, or cache size."

No mention of clock speed then. I wonder how low the CPU's are to hit that 40w target.

Zero_UK 1st September 2009, 10:54

256 MHz sixcore CPU! providing 1.5ghz intotal. Overclocking to 512 providing a 3ghz in total sixcore! :)

lol, but a more serious note: this could be quite promising if they begin developing CPU's with low power requirements for high overclocking etc. Even if they jump back to 2ghz (per core) overclocking to like 3ghz + for a short while till the chips can be developed into better frequences. So probably nothing fantastic compared to the i5/i7s for a short while but in a few years reckon this could be a good direction of CPU's. But as said above.. details required to see if really successful this time round :)

javaman 1st September 2009, 11:19

Quote:

Originally Posted by l3v1ck
No mention of clock speed then. I wonder how low the CPU's are to hit that 40w target.

Are these the 32nm that AMD was said to be producing or am I thinking of intel?

general22 1st September 2009, 11:50

Bit sad technology wise that AMD needs 6 cores to keep up with the server beast that is Nehalem. On the other hand if it provides comparable performance the consumer won't really care.

stonedsurd 1st September 2009, 12:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by general22
Bit sad technology wise that AMD needs 6 cores to keep up with the server beast that is Nehalem. On the other hand if it provides comparable performance the consumer won't really care.

You do realize that Nehalem munches on power like a gremlin on pot?

Almightyrastus 1st September 2009, 13:05

I would just like to be able to use 4 cores for everyday computing let alone 6

crazyceo 1st September 2009, 13:49

I just hope this Opteron runs better than the one I have because I can see a big different to the previous Xeon based server I had stolen a few months back.

The problem with AMD is they have been shouting about various products for over a year now but when they finally get independently reviewed their products haven't really been up to much.

This is bad marketing and by the sound of it just sound bites for the share holders still crying about the price they paid 2 years ago for AMD shares.

general22 1st September 2009, 15:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by stonedsurd
[You do realize that Nehalem munches on power like a gremlin on pot?

Nehalem is pretty power efficient considering it does more work per clock so finishes the task quicker and has pretty good idle power characteristics. Also from this tech report posting http://techreport.com/discussions.x/17502 it seems that this hex core runs at 1.8 Ghz. Might be a good upgrade for existing opteron servers.

l3v1ck 1st September 2009, 16:11

Six 1.8 ghz cores. Surely four 2.7 GHZ would be more suitable, especially in single threaded apps.
(6x1.8=10.8, 4x2.7=10.8)

HourBeforeDawn 1st September 2009, 20:37

I want to see this done for consumer based cpus.

Burnout21 2nd September 2009, 09:34

I still want my hybrid CPU.

An Atom core or simular for tasks of under 50% load, and a 4/5 cores of current gen CPU's which deal with high load tasks. But those 4/5 cores dont idle they would actually turn off completely if possible.

It might be a difficult idea to develope, might even be silly but it would save a bucket load of energy!