The Processor Quick Reference Guide -- Your source for
AMD Opteron™ Processor Specifications and More


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Power Enterprise Applications at Record Speed: The Solaris Performance Advantage
The powerful combination of the
Solaris OS and the AMD Opteron
processor is shattering benchmark records and delivering breakthrough price/performance for databases, application servers, Web servers, compilers, and more.

"Sun's AMD Opteron processor-based systems are the fastest and most cost-effective solutions out there," says Sunay Tripathi, Sun senior staff engineer, Solaris Network and Security Technologies. "Customers can now rely on x86 hardware for all types of enterprise-class applications."

The only industrial-grade UNIX environment for x86 systems, the Solaris Operating System (OS) provides enterprise-class functionality across systems based on AMD64 technology. The Solaris 10 OS offers many exciting new features designed to deliver the relentless availability, extreme performance, and unparalleled security today's enterprises demand. With the Solaris 10 OS, your business can leverage the benefits of the
AMD Opteron processor's industry-leading performance, yet standardize on a single operating system that can run throughout your enterprise.

Sun's AMD Opteron processor-based product line and the Solaris OS enable a risk-free growth path to 64-bit computing, helping companies leverage the power and performance of 64-bit computing while protecting investments in 32-bit applications. 32-bit applications will continue to run seamlessly at the same, or higher, levels of performance.

Explore the price/performance advantages of the Solaris OS and Sun systems based on AMD Opteron processors>>>

Maximize Your Virtualization Benefits with AMD64 Technology
AMD Opteron processor-based servers provide a robust foundation for maximizing the benefits of virtualization software. Virtualization software helps you partition, consolidate, and manage your mission-critical systems. With simultaneous 32- and 64-bit computing capabilities, the AMD Opteron is well-suited for the demands of server virtualization. The processor's Direct Connect Architecture features an integrated memory controller and HyperTransport™ technology, enabling more efficient memory and I/O access - which are key for many memory and I/O-intensive virtualization environments.

By using server virtualization, your business can "right-size" systems to respond to changing business requirements. This improves server utilization rates, increases infrastructure flexibility, and helps maximize your technology investments.

AMD Opteron processor-based platforms are ideal for enterprise server virtualization because they deliver:

Peak performance
The AMD Opteron processor is built on AMD64 technology with Direct Connect Architecture. By eliminating the bottlenecks inherent in front-side bus technology, the Direct Connect Architecture seamlessly connects the processors, memory controller, and I/O to the central processing unit. This helps improve overall system performance and efficiency. Most importantly, it means that your business can leverage all available resources within a physical system to obtain the key advantages of a virtualized environment.

Enterprise-level scalability
By providing efficient CPU utilization and I/O capabilities,
AMD Opteron processor-based systems can support an exceptional number of virtual machines within a single physical system. Likewise, for targeted applications, one AMD server can support large numbers of users on multiple virtual machines.

Effective workload management
Servers based on the AMD Opteron processor are a natural complement to the consolidation initiatives that are driving your IT organization today. The integrated memory controller offers high-speed, low-latency access to memory. Thus, host systems and virtual machines can operate effectively under peak loads, and in turn, enable IT staff to efficiently balance their application workloads across their virtualized environment. Plus, by consolidating workloads on your systems, your business can reduce server footprints and related data center costs (cooling, power, space, installation, integration, and administration).

Start maximizing the return on your IT investments today by using enterprise server virtualization and AMD64 technology for virtualization>>>

Find it Fast: Your Source for AMD Opteron processor Specifications and More
Now you can locate AMD Opteron processor product offerings and identify the technical differences between each model's features when you access the Processor Quick Reference guide. This online resource is designed for you because we know you need access to consolidated information on AMD Opteron processors.

How does the tool work? Once you arrive at the Online Processor Quick Reference Guide on our Web site, you will see a list of valid Ordering Parts Numbers (OPNs). You may either click on an OPN from this list, or reset the filters based on your interests and click the "Apply Filters" button. This action will return a list of all valid OPNs that match the criteria of the filter settings you selected. To view further technical information as it corresponds to a product, click on the desired OPN. This will bring you to the details page. The tool will then display the technical product information for that OPN.

Explore the Processor Quick Reference Guide now>>>

New Cray Supercomputers Deliver Unmatched Performance
Cray Inc. recently introduced two new supercomputer products that combine AMD Opteron processors and Linux with Cray's high-bandwidth and low-latency Direct Connect Architectures to deliver superior real-application performance on High Performance Computing applications ranging from CAE to weather forecasting to scientific research.

Starting at under $100,000 (U.S. list), the Cray XD1 supercomputer brings the reliability and performance customers expect from Cray to a whole new group of HPC users. Powered by AMD Opteron 200 Series processors and taking advantage of HyperTransport technology to directly connect processors and memory, the Cray XD1 system handily outperforms similarly priced Linux clusters on scientific and engineering workloads. "We were particularly impressed with the Cray XD1's awesome scalability on our challenging interdisciplinary problems," said the Forest Service's Fire Science Lab, one of a growing number of new customers the Cray XD1 system has attracted to the company. A 12-chassis rack can provide 144 compute processors, 691 peak gigaflops, 1 TB/second aggregate switching capacity, 2 microseconds MPI interprocessor latency, 922 GB/second aggregate memory bandwidth, 1 TB maximum memory and 16 TB maximum disk storage. Larger configurations are also available.

The Cray XT3 massively parallel processing (MPP) supercomputer, designed around AMD Opteron 100 Series processors, can scale to 30,000 AMD Opteron processors and hundreds of teraflops (trillions of calculations/second) of peak processing power. The first Cray XT3 system, with more than 10,000 processors based on AMD64 technology, is going to Sandia National Laboratories, which co-designed the "Red Storm" architecture on which the Cray XT3 supercomputer is based. Other early customers include Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), which plans to install a 20-teraflop Cray XT3 system in 2005 and grow to 250-teraflop capability by 2007, and the Pittsburgh Supercomputer Center, which plans to start with a 10-teraflop system.

Learn more about high performance supercomputing solutions from Cray>>>

New from PathScale: Upgraded AMD64 Compilers, Lowest Latency Cluster Interconnects and Easy-to-Use Analysis Tools for AMD Opteron processor-based Systems
PathScale announced three new products at this year's SC2004 Conference in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. PathScale announced the 2.0 version of the PathScale EKOPath Compiler Suite. This new version includes support for OpenMP,a new serial debugger (pathdb) that can be used with C, C++ and Fortran programs and a bundled version of the latest AMD Core Math Library (ACML). The 2.0 version also includes substantial performance enhancements to extend its performance leadership position for 64-bit Linux applications.

PathScale also introduced the industry's first high-performance cluster interconnect adapter that attaches directly to HyperTransport technology, taking full advantage of Direct Connect Architecture based on AMD64 technology. The HyperTransport Technology Consortium, working with AMD, PathScale and Iwill, has created a new standard HyperTransport technology connector called the HTX slot that is being adopted by multiple AMD64 motherboard suppliers, with Iwill Corporation's new DK8S2-HTX dual-processor AMD Opteron processor motherboard being the first available. The PathScale InfiniPath HTX Adapter provides MPI latencies under 1.5us and greater than 1800 MB/s of bi-directional bandwidth. PathScale InfiniPath, which has been optimized to provide world-class MPI performance, connects to external nodes via standard InfiniBand cables and switches from vendors such as Infinicon, TopSpin and Voltaire.

Additionally, PathScale introduced the PathScale OptiPath MPI Acceleration Tools, the industry's first easy-to-use, root-cause performance analysis tools for MPI applications. These unique tools are designed to help scientists and engineers create dramatically more efficient MPI programs.

Learn more about Compiliers, Interconnects and Tools from PathScale for processors based on AMD64 technology>>>

Created with You in Mind: Technical Training Courses from MindShare
MindShare, a leading provider of unparalleled technical training services to top corporations in the computer industry for more than 15 years, has developed new training opportunities specific to the software and hardware aspects of the AMD Opteron processor with Direct Connect Architecture.

Today, MindShare invites you to take advantage of AMD64 architecture-related training. In these courses you will learn about the functionality of AMD64 technology, including the two new operating modes, 64-bit extensions, and more. Additionally, these training courses are designed to provide you with an in-depth view of the hardware architecture for the AMD Opteron processor and provide a description of the steps firmware must take in order to configure an AMD Opteron processor-based system.

Who should enroll? These MindShare courses are essential for hardware and software engineers developing solutions based on the AMD Opteron processor.

Adopt, implement, and support AMD64 technologies with greater speed and confidence. Learn more and schedule your MindShare training opportunity today>>>

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