AMD debuts low-power quad Opterons
updated 04:05 pm EDT, Mon May 12, 2008
AMD Opteron HE
AMD on Monday sought to push the limits of its high-end processors and launched new quad-core versions of the Opteron HE processor. All five new entries consume an average of just 55 watts, or much less than the 75 and 105 watts of power used by existing Opterons and less than some of their Intel Xeon equivalents. The cooler-running chips allow the system to run in both smaller workstation PCs as well as blades and rackmount servers, where many Opterons are often too hot for the tight spaces.
The chipmaker ships the processors in clock speeds between 1.7GHz and 1.9GHz with versions that are rated to work with systems that use two sockets (2300 series), four sockets (4300 series), and eight sockets (8300), supplying between eight and 32 cores in a single system. The processors are already available but haven't been given a complete public price list by AMD.
