AMD back on track with Shanghai CPU

[PBS Poll-435]

Intel, AMD will be neck-and-neck in server chips in 2009

Rick Merritt
Page 1 of 2
EE Times
(11/07/2008 10:39 AM EST)


SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. — Advanced Micro Devices is back on track with its latest 45 nm Shanghai processor driving an uptick in sales in high-end server markets, according to a handful of integrators. Longer term, high performance computing (HPC) companies expect to see neck-and neck competition between AMD and Intel as both move to six-core server processors in 2009.

AMD's four-core, 45 nm Shanghai processor is shipping now, ahead of schedule. The chip, which AMD has not yet formally announced, will be priced aggressively and is getting performance measures as high as 35 percent above its previous 65 nm Barcelona while consuming as much as 30 percent less power, said Burke Banda, a server marketing manager for AMD.

The Barcelona chip was marred by late delivery due to a verification glitch at a time when archrival Intel was rolling out its widely praised Penryn family of multicore processors. That cost AMD significant business in the server sector where it has had an edge for several years, but with Shanghai the company has regained its footing.

"I can see the AMD percentage of our sales increasing dramatically with Shanghai," said Philip Pokorny, chief hardware architect for Penguin Computing (Fremont, Calif.) an integrator focused on the HPC market. "Before Barcelona our business was 70 percent AMD processors and 30 percent Intel, but there was a reversal and now I am hoping we get to parity," he said, speaking at a panel of integrators gathered here by AMD.

http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=212001228

[sam sarrha]

1. Intel just came out with the i7 >>LINK>>

http://www.edn.com/blog/980000298/post/310036231.html

[PBS Poll-435]

2. Yeah, but they decided to lauch "desktop" first.

Their Nehalem server part doesn't come out until next year.

[sam sarrha]

3. i just thought the Pictures were pretty...