| Q: | What markets are you targeting with the AMD Opteron™ 1000 Series processors with Direct Connect Architecture?
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| A: | Designed for 1-socket server and workstation applications, AMD Opteron 1000 Series processors are intended for customers who want the reliability and performance of AMD Opteron processors but are looking for lower-cost solutions. One-socket servers are commonly used by small businesses for multiple needs as well as by departmental users for web serving, file and print needs, and other less CPU-intensive applications. One-socket workstations are commonly used by CAD, architectural, and DCC professionals to create engineering models, design schematics, or digital effects. |
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| Q: | What are the main differences between these latest AMD Opteron processors and first-generation
AMD Opteron processors? What are the end-user benefits?
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| A: | These latest AMD Opteron processors offer several significant enhancements, including platform upgradeability to quad-core, AMD Virtualization™, and DDR2 memory support. We believe these features enhance the performance-per-watt and overall business capabilities of AMD Opteron processors, while leveraging the same proven technologies available since April 2003 with first-generation AMD Opteron processors.
End user benefits can include reduced total cost of ownership, a more flexible IT environment, and improved performance-per-watt and performance-per-dollar. Reduction of TCO is driven by the use of low-power DDR2 memory (which may also offer cost benefits over FBDIMM) and by the implementation of our AMD64 common core strategy across 1-socket, 2-socket, and 4-socket platforms, which can help reduce support costs. AMD Virtualization can benefit IT flexibility by supporting more applications on a single system or by supporting legacy applications on modern hardware. In addition to the benefit of lower-power memory use, by offering a planned quad-core upgrade path in DDR2 platforms within our customers’ thermal and cooling infrastructures, we enable our customers to increase the longevity of their hardware investments with significant planned performance-per-watt system upgrade capabilities. |
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| Q: | What does HE stand for?
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| A: | HE stands for “Highly Efficient” processing for servers and workstations and is used to reference our lower wattage processors. |
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| Q: | Explain AMD’s model number system for AMD Opteron processors. At what frequency are the latest AMD Opteron processors?
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| A: | AMD currently has a 4-digit model numbering scheme for AMD Opteron processors based on Socket F (1207) for the 2000 Series and 8000 Series and socket AM2 for the 1000 Series. The “2” in the second spot of the model numbers represents the 2nd-generation socket, while the 1/2/8 in the first spot represents the scalability of each product line (as has been the case since introduction in 2003):
Up to 1-socket = 12xx. Socket AM2
Up to 2-socket = 22xx. Socket F (1207)
Up to 8-socket = 82xx. Socket F (1207)
Detailed information explaining model numbers and their features is available on www.amd.com/opteronmodelnumbers
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| Q: | What are the prices of the latest AMD Opteron processor models?
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| A: | Please see AMD Processor Pricing for a complete listing of prices for AMD Opteron processors. www.amd.com/pricing |
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| Q: | What motherboard support is available for the latest AMD Opteron processor models?
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| A: | Please visit www.amd.com/configuration for more information on specific boards and configurations. |
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| Q: | Which companies will be supporting the latest AMD Opteron processors models?
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| A: | All OEMs currently shipping AMD Opteron processor-based servers and workstations are expected to support this launch. |
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| Q: | What chipset support is available for the latest AMD Opteron processor models?
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| A: | AMD Opteron processors are supported by chipsets designed to the open HyperTransport™ technology standard. AMD, Broadcom, and nVidia are the primary chipset providers for the server and workstation market. |
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| Q: | What benchmarks are you providing for this launch?
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| A: | Published benchmarks can be found at www.amd.com/opteronperformance. |
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| Q: | What operating systems are currently supported by AMD Opteron processors?
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| A: | Our processors are designed to be compatible with all x86 operating systems. AMD processors are compatible with more than 120 operating system versions, including 64-bit versions from Microsoft, Novell, Red Hat and Solaris. A full list of operating systems as well as applications supporting AMD64 processors can be found at www.amd.com/amd64ecosystem. |
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| Q: | Why are you only launching dual-core versions of the AMD Opteron processor?
Is demand for dual-core that strong?
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| A: | In the datacenter today, performance-per-watt has become one of the top concerns for customers. Dual-Core AMD Opteron processors have provided our customers with industry leading performance-per-watt. Customers and end users currently face thermal and environmental challenges with today’s computing platforms. AMD64 dual-core technology is designed to deliver balanced solutions to address computing demands within a given power envelope. Multi-core processors help to break through today’s single-core performance limitations and provide the performance capacity to tackle tomorrow’s more advanced software. All AMD Opteron processors with DDR2 are dual-core and are designed to be upgradeable to AMD’s native quad-core ‘Barcelona’ processor in 2007. |
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| Q: | What are the implications of this launch for software vendors?
How will software vendors license applications for AMD’s dual-core technology?
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| A: | AMD has established itself as an industry leader for x86 multi-core computing and while we expect software vendors to follow their established licensing practices, AMD strongly recommends that software developers license on a per-processor basis. This means that users would purchase one software license per processor, no matter whether the processor has a single core or dual cores. AMD believes this customer-centric licensing approach will help facilitate the broad adoption of multi-core technology, enabling users to easily and economically migrate to multi-core computing. Software industry leaders Microsoft, Novell, Red Hat, and Sun have all announced plans for this licensing method. |
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