AMD cherry picking low power Opterons

zerodamage · Dec 22, 2003, 06:24 PM

"A FEW WEEKS BACK, AMD announced a series of new low power Opterons. These come in 55w and 30w flavors, sampling now, shipping real soon. Normal Opterons are rated at 89w, but real world tests show them to be more toward 60w under load.

These chips will continue to offer low power at full performance levels for all of 2004, and afterwards, the roadmaps show that performance will increase, but power will not. That is good news for blade and dense form factor suppliers.

How does this miracle of technology occur? How do they nominally shave off 34w from their cutting edge chips? Advanced processes? Alien technology? Campaign contributions and pirated "Talking Carebear" parts?

Nope, they cherry pick. Yes, Opterons off the current production lines can run at "full speed" while consuming only 30w.

We are not sure if we should feel awed that the .13SOI process is this good, or cheated because we thought we were getting something special. Either way, the mystery is now much less mysterious."

Source: TheInquirer

Dec 22, 2003, 06:24 PM	#1
zerodamage HardwareHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: May 2003 Location: Virginia, USA Posts: 3,478 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	AMD cherry picking low power Opterons "A FEW WEEKS BACK, AMD announced a series of new low power Opterons. These come in 55w and 30w flavors, sampling now, shipping real soon. Normal Opterons are rated at 89w, but real world tests show them to be more toward 60w under load. These chips will continue to offer low power at full performance levels for all of 2004, and afterwards, the roadmaps show that performance will increase, but power will not. That is good news for blade and dense form factor suppliers. How does this miracle of technology occur? How do they nominally shave off 34w from their cutting edge chips? Advanced processes? Alien technology? Campaign contributions and pirated "Talking Carebear" parts? Nope, they cherry pick. Yes, Opterons off the current production lines can run at "full speed" while consuming only 30w. We are not sure if we should feel awed that the .13SOI process is this good, or cheated because we thought we were getting something special. Either way, the mystery is now much less mysterious." Source: TheInquirer