New Appro Supercomputing Solutions nearly double Memory Bandwidth for Massively Parallel Applications Scalability

Appro announced today the upgrade of its entire 2- and 4-socket server lines to the AMD Opteron 6100 Series Processor, (code-named "Magny-Cours") that introduces 8- and 12-core x86 processors. This upgrade improves performance and value over prior offerings while maintaining platform consistency that scales for memory- and compute-intensive workloads.  The Appro 2- and 4-socket servers based on the AMD Opteron 6100 Series Processor are expected to be available in April 2010.

The Appro Hyper Clusters and Xtreme-X Supercomputer series based on this new AMD Opteron processor feature the latest technologies designed for HPC such as DDR3 memory support for up to 50% more DIMMS, and up to 66% faster memory performance.  The combination of higher core density, new AMD 5690 chipset and PCI Express Gen 2 enables significant performance advantages, with up to 48 total cores per node providing high bandwidth up to and exceeding 100GB/second.  This effectively doubles the memory bandwidth of previous 2- and 4-sockets server generations while delivering choices in energy footprints to match workload and power requirements. Also, the new AMD-based Appro supercomputing solutions can help companies get more out of their IT investments by maintaining server platform consistency from the entry-level to advanced HPC mission critical applications, enabling drop-in upgradeability for the next-generation AMD core.

"We are pleased to take advantage of today's newly launched AMD64 technology in Appro supercomputing systems," said John Lee, VP of Advanced Technology Solutions Group at Appro. "Appro's upgraded servers and supercomputing solutions based on this new AMD Opteron processors offer a strong HPC value proposition by bringing massive throughput to 2- and 4-socket servers while significantly reducing data bottlenecks. This upgrade matches high-performance computing requirements needing higher memory and I/O bandwidth combined with energy efficient features while also representing Appro's continued growth in large-scale cluster deployments with price/performance leadership."

"AMD and Appro are committed to delivering HPC solutions to customers that address system performance-per-watt and enhanced memory bandwidth while continuing to push the envelope for scalability in critical workloads, especially for massively parallel applications," said Patrick Patla, vice president and general manager, Server and Embedded divisions, AMD. "The AMD Opteron 6100 series processor is designed to deliver the optimal balance of performance, energy efficiency and value for the evolving HPC market."