AMD Delivers Faster and Cooler Rev F Opteron Chips

Published: February 8, 2007

by Timothy Prickett Morgan

Advanced Micro Devices this week cranked the clock another notch on its dual-core Rev F Opteron processors, raising the top speed of the chips to 2.8 GHz. And because AMD is in a price and technology war with Intel, AMD is giving customers that extra 200 MHz of performance at the same price as it charged for its 2.6 GHz parts and cut prices across the line as it shifts its bins.

As part of the launch of faster Rev F processors, AMD also expanded the options customers have to buy lower-voltage versions of the Opteron parts, which run at cooler temperatures but which also run at the same clock speeds as standard Opteron parts. A faster dual-core Athlon AM2 processor for single-socket workstations and servers was also announced this week.

"We are delivering more performance per dollar and more performance per watt, and we are delivering on our dual-core processor roadmap," says Steve Demski, Opteron product manager at AMD.

There are two new Rev F Opterons that run at the faster 2.8 GHz clock speed, both of which have a maximum thermal design point (TDP) of 95 watts. (It always bears reminding that the Opteron design has an integrated DDR2 main memory controller, so be careful when comparing to Intel's Xeon 5100 and 5300 processors, which do not have memory controllers on the chip. Such memory controllers can add 20 to 25 watts to the thermal envelope.) The Opteron 8220 costs $1,514 in 1,000-unit quantities, while the Opteron 2220 costs $698.

The Opteron 2220 is a Rev F chip that plugs into two-socket motherboards, while the Opteron 8220 plugs into boards that support four sockets. In some cases, server makers scale multiple four-socket boards to make larger machines, but Sun's high-end "Galaxy" 4600 server, which has eight sockets, does not do this. That machine uses eight Opteron 8000 series processors, each one fit on its own board with main memory and I/O--akin to the uniboard design that Sun created for its Sparc-based servers many years ago.

For customers who need fast Opteron processors, but who have energy consumption, heating, and cooling issues, AMD is announcing two variants of its low-voltage Highly Efficient, or HE parts. These chips have a 68-watt TDP. The Opteron 8218 runs at 2.6 GHz and costs $1,340, while the Opteron 2218 runs at the same speed and costs $611. (Again, the 8000 series chips are for machines with four or more CPU sockets, while the 2000 series are for two-socket boxes.) The current top-end HE parts run at 2.4 GHz, and span down to 2.2 GHz in four-socket machines and down to 2 GHz in two-socket machines.

For single-socket machines, there are five new Rev F Opteron HE parts that have a 65-watt TDP, as well as an Athlon part that runs at 2.8 GHz but which burns at a 103-watt TDP. Rev F Opteron HE parts span from the Opteron 1210 HE, which runs at 1.8 GHz and costs $168, to the Opteron 1218, which runs at 2.6 GHz and costs $432. Those building servers or workstations on small form factor boards with a single AM2 socket (which is a variant of the old 940-pin Opteron Rev E socket) can buy the Opteron 1220, which is really an Athlon X2 with a different brand on it. This 2.8 GHz part costs $545.

While power and cooling issues are on the minds of IT managers and server makers these days, and while AMD is to be commended for taking the time to create the Opteron HE parts several years ago and then taking away the huge price disparity it used to charge, the chips have not yet taken the market by storm. "The 95-watt parts are mostly what we sell," explains Demski. "If you get outside of California, New York, and other high-density areas where space is expensive and so is electricity, people are still mostly price sensitive, not heat sensitive."

Of course, if energy costs keep going up, that will change.

Intel is trying to use energy savings to propel its Xeon 5100 and 5300 server processors, the former of which deliver 4.5 times better performance per watt than the single-core processors that Intel was selling at the beginning of 2006 against superior dual-core Opterons--and selling very poorly in many cases. The Xeon 5300s do even better. Despite the fact that Intel can quote lower TDP numbers for its chips--mainly because they do not have memory controllers on chip--AMD's own tests using the new SPEC CPU_2006 benchmark tests show that the standard Rev F parts announced this week deliver the same or better performance than similar Xeon 5100 parts from Intel. And comparing the Opteron 8220 against Intel's "Tulsa" Xeon 7140, the Opteron comes out way ahead on performance for many workloads and still does, on average, about 6 percent better on seven standard benchmarks.

It is a dead heat, more or less, at the chip level and, very likely, at the system level, too. Which is why AMD can't charge more money for that extra performance.

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