AMD Launches New Platform for Dedicated Web Hosting Providers

New AMD Opteronâ„¢ 3200 Series Processor Family Changes Industry Economics for Single-Socket, Dedicated Hosting and Cloud customers

SUNNYVALE, Calif. -3/20/2012

AMD (NYSE: AMD) today announced the latest solution as part of its ongoing Web/Cloud initiative with the launch of the new AMD Opteronâ„¢ 3200 Series processor. Dedicated Web hosting customers seeking enterprise-class reliability have a new choice that delivers:
• Great value with up to 38% better price performance1 and up to 19% less power per core2 than the competition;
• ECC memory and server reliability features at a low price-point;
• Fast hardware payback – In as few as 7 months hosting fees can cover hardware costs – up to 14% quicker than with the competition3;
• Efficient economics for the Cloud with twice the core density per rack4.

“In today’s economic environment, dedicated hosting providers need their data centers to become profit centers faster than ever,” said Patrick Patla, corporate vice president and general manager, Commercial Business, AMD. “With the new AMD Opteronâ„¢ 3000 Series platform, Web and Cloud customers no longer have to compromise with desktop-class platforms in order to hit certain price points. Now they have all the benefits of a true server-class product at desktop-class price points. This helps rapidly-growing hosting customers achieve fast payback in their incredibly dense, power-efficient environments.”

Since the launch of its new core server architecture, and AMD Opteron 4200 and 6200 Series processors last November, AMD unveiled a disruptive server strategy and intentions to leverage its leading graphics IP while driving down the power in future SoC offerings. As part of accelerating this, AMD recently announced it had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Cloud pioneer SeaMicro.

Today AMD has delivered on its promise of a low-power, single-socket solution that brings server functionality with desktop economics. The AMD Opteron 3000 Series platform is targeted to the dense, power efficient 1P Web hosting/Web server market. Available in either 4- or 8-core CPUs, the AMD Opteron 3200 Series processor is shipping today in platforms from MSI, Tyan, Fujitsu and Dell. Based on the “Bulldozer” core, the AMD Opteron 3000 Series platform leverages Socket AM3+ and provides customers with the cost savings associated with a “desktop-like” infrastructure, yet still offers server-class reliability, enterprise-class silicon validation/testing, security features and server OS certification.

“AMD is a great partner, and we’re excited about the new AMD Opteron 3200 Series CPU. It allows us to create a custom design for our DCS customers, and deliver a compelling combination of performance and energy efficiency, ” says Dell Data Center Solutions’ Steve Cumings. “As the leader in the Density-Optimized market segment, we require focused partner technology within industry standards – and this is a good fit for our customers.”

Key Facts, Performance and Technical Detail

• 45W to 65W TDP
• 2.7 GHz base frequency, up to 3.7 GHz frequency using AMD Turbo CORE technology5
• 4- and 8-core options
• 2 DDR3 memory channels supporting ECC UDIMM
• 1333, 1600, 1866 MHz memory speed6
• Supports 1.5V, 2Rank
• Up to 32GB memory capacity
• Supports up to 2 DIMMs per memory channel
• Total Cache: 16MB for 8-core, 8MB for 4-core
• L2 Cache: up to 8MB total
• L3 Cache: up to 8MB total

Magny-Cours adoption is important. Organizations typically don’t upgrade HPC clusters with new CPUs, but AMD is billing Interlagos as a drop-in option for MC. As such, it’ll offer up to 2x the cores (16x as compared to 8x) and equal-to-faster clockspeeds. AMD’s corporate marketing VP, Leslie Solon, said the following:

The introduction of the AMD Opteron processor coincided with the HPC industry’s shift to x86 and cluster-based architecture, away from expensive proprietary or RISC-based systems,” said Leslie Sobon, corporate vice president, product marketing, AMD. “AMD provided the server technology that helped drive the democratization of supercomputing and has shown steadfast leadership in helping HPC break performance boundaries. Our new 16-core processor codenamed “Interlagos” will add features specifically for HPC and offer the world’s highest core count for x86. In addition to CPUs, we are also now seeing adoption of our GPU technologies in HPC and believe this will be a significant area for further development.

If current trends continue, AMD’s share of the supercomputer market will slowly rise. The chart is interesting in its own right. Intel’s share of the industry exploded virtually overnight, from a bare footnote in 2001 to a huge slice of the market in 2005. AMD’s Opteron debut went extremely well, but topped out in 2006. It fell steadily for several years thereafter, thanks to increased pressure from Intel’s Core architecture. Thus far, 2011 looks like a winning year, though we suspect Interlagos (currently scheduled for a Q3 debut) will make the difference.

According to the firm, Interlagos will feature multiple enhancements for HPC workloads, including a “Flex FP” technology. Presumably this refers to the fact that Bulldozer modules share an FPU. AMD is attempting to spin this as a positive and refers to Flex FP as “an innovation that allows for significant overall processor power savings when the Flex FP is not fully utilized.”

That’s not necessarily untrue. Bulldozer is quite different from any of AMD’s previous architectures. Previous K8/K10 processors were built for high performance first and foremost. Bulldozer, in contrast, is designed to maximize instruction execution efficiency and die size. AMD’s decision to build a single, powerful, shared FPU unit rather than building two completely separate cores may well reduce power consumption. The big question now is whether or not Bulldozer can deliver performance good enough to challenge Intel’s dominance.

“Data centers are one application where the speed benefits of a fast SSD visibly fall straight to a company’s bottom line,” said SSD analyst Jim Handy of Objective Analysis. “This has driven the enterprise to be the fastest-growing market for SSDs – Objective Analysis forecasts for enterprise SSD unit shipments to grow at an average annual rate of 83 percent, nearly doubling every year.”

As the demand for increased storage efficiency, maximized data throughput, and a smaller operating footprint broadens across various industries, more and more companies are turning to the benefits of SSDs to significantly optimize their storage infrastructures. With these requirements in mind, OCZ has been a pioneer in the design and development of SSDs for the enterprise environment, pushing the envelope to develop solutions that combine industry-leading performance with a robust feature-set. Deneva 2, the company’s latest offering, features several enterprise-critical options not available in OCZ’s consumer product lines, including power loss data protection, best-in-class endurance (e.g., minimal write amplification, intelligent block management and wear-leveling), and advanced encryption and ECC.

“Processing data is critical to any business looking to compete in a rapidly changing, global marketplace. However, many enterprise organizations are limited by outdated storage solutions, which limits their ability to process the necessary data they require to operate their businesses,” said Ryan Petersen, CEO at OCZ Technology Group. “Deneva 2 SSDs are optimized for high-volume storage applications, offer industry-leading reliability, and leverage the latest NAND and controller technology to deliver superior performance. This combination means that enterprises can overcome previous roadblocks, and use their data in real-time.”

Based on SandForce® SF-2000 SSD processors, the Deneva 2 series delivers up to 80,000 4KB random write IOPS and 550MB/s of potential bandwidth. Along with world-renowned performance, Deneva 2 SSDs are specifically designed to deliver superior reliability and are manufactured with the latest flash components specific to the customer’s needs. In addition, the series includes enterprise-grade multi-level cell (eMLC) NAND flash technology, which offers improved endurance for write-intensive applications. Deneva 2 SSDs can also be customized, come in a wide variety of interface options including PCIe, and are available in 2.5, 3.5, and 1.8 inch form factors for use in very high density computing environments, including blade servers.

OCZ Deneva 2 solutions overcome the performance, durability, and maintenance obstacles inherent to mechanical HDD storage. OCZ’s ability to provide a tailored solution ensures ultimate compatibility, reliability, and cost-savings, resulting in products that are optimized to specifically address the unique needs of enterprise clients.