ECONOMICS

AMD announced an expansion of its awarding-winning AMD Opteron(TM) processor family, featuring low- and mid-power products. With the new low-power AMD Opteron processors, enterprise customers can now employ a common infrastructure based on AMD64 technology at all levels of their enterprise environments -- from high-performance clusters to blade servers. The AMD Opteron processors HE (55 watt) and EE (30 watt) for servers and workstations, which are expected to be available in March, bring world-class 32-bit performance and easy migration to 64-bit computing to customers who demand increased compute density, investment protection for the future and the most performance per watt of any processor in their class as measured by the industry-standard benchmark suite SPEC(R) cpu2000. "Any enterprise concerned about power usage in their data centers now has a low-power options that also offer industry-leading per watt performance, reliable security and the assurance of investment protection," said Marty Seyer, vice president and general manager of AMD's Microprocessor Business Unit. "The feedback was clear, with customers asking for AMD64 to take a leadership role in reducing operational costs through lower power options. Now enterprise customers have never before had such a broad choice for power options for both 32-bit and 64-bit solutions. AMD leads the industry with its AMD64 architecture, and in response to customer demand, we're pleased to add a broader set of power options." "As businesses try to squeeze more processing power out of fixed-sized datacenters and power budgets, performance per watt is becoming increasingly more important to the enterprise," said Vernon Turner of International Data Corporation (IDC). "AMD answers that need with the low-power AMD Opteron processors HE and EE, offering some of the most performance per watt of any processors in their class." The new low-power AMD Opteron processors are well-suited for the blade server market. These smaller servers can be less-expensive to acquire than traditional servers and run cooler than their full-size counterparts. The AMD Opteron processor continues to gain wide-ranging acceptance, with increased endorsements from Fortune 1000 companies, the clustering and High Performance Computing arena, database computing and workstation customers who rely on compute-intensive applications like financial modeling, digital content creation and CAD. A listing of companies offering AMD Opteron processor-based products can be found at www.amd.com/serverpartners and www.amd.com/workstationpartners. Pricing The AMD Opteron processor models 846 HE and 840 EE are priced at $1,514 in 1,000-unit quantities. The AMD Opteron processor models 246 HE and 240 EE are priced at $851 in 1,000-unit quantities. The AMD Opteron processor models 146 HE and 140 EE are priced at $733 in 1,000-unit quantities. AMD is immediately taking orders for the processors, which are expected to ship worldwide within 30 days.