INDUSTRY
HP and AMD Form Relationship to Power Server Innovation and Performance
HP and AMD announced an expanded collaboration to broaden HP’s standards-based server portfolio with the introduction of AMD Opteron™ processor-based systems in the HP ProLiant server family. The companies have agreed to work together to drive next-generation server capabilities through a multi-year purchasing, marketing and technology collaboration agreement. “HP’s Adaptive Enterprise strategy assures customers that they will have the broadest choice of industry standard-based platforms to meet their evolving business needs,” said Brad Anderson, senior vice president and general manager, Industry Standard Servers, HP. “The AMD Opteron processor is an evolution of current x86 architectures that can provide immediate performance advantages in 32-bit environments, accelerate ISV adoption and further advance the future of 64-bit ecosystems.” “HP, the market leader for servers, has chosen the AMD Opteron processor to help expand their product offerings,” said Marty Seyer, vice president and general manager, Microprocessor Business Unit, AMD. “Their decision to incorporate AMD Opteron processors in the ProLiant family confirms AMD’s momentum in the enterprise and HP’s commitment to providing customers more choice on industry-standard platforms.” As part of today’s announcement, HP introduced new industry-standard ProLiant servers featuring the AMD Opteron processor, including the ProLiant DL145, a two-processor server, and DL585, a four-processor workhorse, as well as plans for future blade servers (for details, see HP news release entitled, “HP Broadens Customer Choice with Expansion of Industry-leading Standards-based Server Portfolio”). “Yahoo! is pleased to see HP ProLiant servers using the AMD Opteron processor. With all of the dependability and functionality we expect from the ProLiant line, this is a welcome addition that makes a lot of sense for Yahoo!,” said Kevin Timmons, senior director of Operations, Yahoo!. “We are very excited by HP’s enhancement of its HPC roadmap by the addition of AMD Opteron processor-based ProLiant server nodes for large-scale clusters,” said Mike Levine and Ralph Roskies, co-scientific directors, Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center. “By providing a choice of HPC solutions, based on both ProLiant and Integrity servers, HP is well-positioned to maintain its leadership in HPC.” Working with AMD expands HP’s unique ability to deliver industry-standard solutions to all computing tiers of the data center. With its full line of ProLiant servers, HP provides customers extensive value, support and technical expertise. AMD Opteron processor-based ProLiant servers offer customers cutting-edge 32- and 64-bit solutions that position HP for accelerated growth in specific markets, including high-performance computing (HPC) applications, memory-intensive applications and blade servers. Building on its new AMD Opteron processor-based HP ProLiant servers, HP’s extensive portfolio of infrastructure solutions delivers consistency across management, storage, operating system, solutions and professional services. Ideal for applications needing expanded memory capabilities and outstanding price/performance, AMD64 technology allows customers to leverage one platform for both 32-bit and sophisticated 64-bit applications. Complementary with HP’s existing ProLiant, Integrity and NonStop server offerings, the AMD Opteron processor is designed to deliver high-performance server and workstation solutions for today’s most demanding enterprise applications. Key AMD Opteron processor innovations include an integrated memory controller, which reduces memory latency, and HyperTransport™ technology, which increases overall performance by removing or reducing processor-to-processor and input/output bottlenecks, increasing bandwidth and enabling the processor to use system memory more efficiently in high-end multiprocessor systems.