Quad core rivals aim at datacentres

Servers are to get a boost following the introduction of new quad-core chips from both AMD and Intel. The chipmaker rivals are targeting datacentres with their new processors, both of which promise better virtualisation, support for greater memory capacity, and power-efficient performance.

Intel introduced the Xeon 7300 on 6th September, just ahead of AMD's launch of its Quad-Core Opteron, codenamed Barcelona. Intel shipped quad-core Xeons last year, but the 7300 is its first aimed at multi-processor (MP) systems while Barcelona is AMD's first quad-core product.

Both chips usher in new features and capabilities; Intel's is accompanied by a new 7300 motherboard chipset that provides for the first time a dedicated connection for each of up to four processor sockets. This improves memory performance when compared with previous Intel platforms that use a shared bus.

"With its expandability and performance, this platform is ideal for server consolidation compared with other four-socket servers," said Intel senior technical marketing engineer Michele Szleper. Servers based on it will be able to scale up to 32 processors and support up to 256GB of memory, she said.

Meanwhile, AMD said that its new Opteron is a true four-core chip, while Intel's Xeon consist of two dual-core dies joined together. The company emphasised its protection of customer investments by keeping to the same power constraints and fitting the same socket as existing dual-core Opterons.

"If a customer has embraced Opteron from two years ago, they can easily upgrade without any changes to their power supply or infrastructure," said Alberto Macchi, AMD vice president of sales for Europe.

Both companies have the backing of major vendors, with IBM updating its System x server line-up using the new quad-core Xeons, while HP likewise expanded its ProLiant range. Meanwhile, Dell, Fujitsu-Siemens, IBM and Sun all had Quad-Core Opteron systems on show at AMD's launch in the city of Barcelona.

While AMD has enjoyed great success in the entry-level server market with Opteron, Intel has still dominated many key market areas. Now both are aiming at similar markets with these new quad-core chips.

Chris Ingle, consulting and research director for IDC, said there are opportunities for both firms.

"Success will be determined by where the OEMs position them. Performance is likely to be the chief concern for customers, but without benchmarks, it is difficult to say which is better," he said.

Gordon Haff, principal IT advisor at Illuminata agreed. "The bottom line is that Intel and AMD have very competitive offerings. I expect that which is " best" will vary by application and system platform. The benchmarks released so far make a detailed direct comparison difficult," he said.

Both firms are also looking to boost server virtualisation. AMD said its Rapid Virtualisation Indexing feature boosts performance by providing hardware to map virtual machine memory to physical memory, a function that is currently done in software. Intel said its VT FlexMigration lets customers create a pool of virtualised machines that can be migrated between generations of its platform.

Intel's Xeon chips are available at clock speeds of 1.6GHz to 2.4GHz, with a 50W L7345 low-power chip running at 1.86GHz targeting blade server, according to the firm. There is also a 2.93GHz version of the chip targeting high-performance computing (HPC) applications. The Quad core Opteron is available in two-socket and four-socket versions clocked from 1.7GHz to 2GHz, with 55W and 75W variants. AMD also said that Opterons running at up to 2.5GHz will be available in the fourth quarter of 2007.