At the AMD Opteron processor Sixth Anniversary event at its Sunnyvale campus, AMD today announced game-changing new additions to its server platform roadmap and a significant acceleration in roadmap execution.

The company announced that "Istanbul," the code name for our upcoming 6-core AMD Opteron processor, is planned for launch in Q2. Istanbul is based on AMD's 45nm quad-core "Shanghai" design. In addition to the two extra cores added, AMD also plans to include a new feature called HT Assist. HT Assist is expected to provide significant memory and I/O performance increases by reducing the overhead of cache lookups.

Istanbul is expected to offer greater levels of parallelism, which can help more work get done simultaneously for greater efficiency, an up to 30 percent more performance within the same power envelope as current Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors (Shanghai).

These processors are also designed to fit into the same socket 1207 architecture as Shanghai.

Istanbul is expected to bring 24-core computing to the 4-socket space with true interconnected and scalable performance (not 24 cores on a front-side bus).

AMD also unveiled the Direct Connect Architecture 2.0: up to 12 cores initially, with superior memory and I/O capability, near native virtualization performance, and a range of power bands that continue to place a priority on low power consumption.



In 2010, AMD plans to ship the AMD Opteron 6000 series for 2P and 4P servers that are designed to address the highly virtualized, high performance computing and database markets. The 6000 series will debut on the G34 socket and the "Maranello" platform, with the 8- and 12-core "Magny-Cours" processors.







The upcoming AMD Opteron 4000 series is also planned for introduction in 2010 for 1P and 2P servers and designed to address virtualized Web and cloud computing environments. The 4000 series will launch with the C32 socket and "San Marino" platform with the 4- and 6-core "Lisbon" processor.

The "Interlagos" 12- and 16-core processor, based on the "Bulldozer" core and manufactured on 32nm process technology, is planned to ship in 2011 and will also be supported by the "Maranello" platform. The 6- to 8-core "Valencia" processor, also manufactured on 32nm process technology, is planned for shipment in 2011 on the "San Marino" platform.



"Over the past six years, AMD has transformed the x86 server industry to what it is today with the AMD Opteron processor, delivering exceptional performance per watt gains along the way. And in 2010 and 2011, AMD plans to deliver to its customers unprecedented back-to-back performance gains that remain true to our commitment on power efficiency. We?re currently working on new processors which we expect will deliver more than 35 times the performance of the original single-core AMD Opteron processor released in 2003," said Patrick Patla, vice president and general manager, Server/Workstation Business, AMD. "With our wide range of available power bands and performance capabilities, AMD is delivering full featured, maximum value at every price point today, and plans to continue to do so well into the future."