- AMD continues industry dual-core leadership with demonstrations from Cray, HP and Sun -



SUNNYVALE, CALIF.-Feb. 15, 2005-AMD (NYSE: AMD) today again displayed the strength of the AMD64 dual-core ecosystem with four dual-core AMD Opteron™ processor technology demonstrations on existing partner server and workstation platforms at LinuxWorld Boston.



Demonstrated systems include a Cray XD1 supercomputer; the HP xw9300 Workstation powered by two dual-core AMD Opteron processors along with NVIDIA SLI dual PCI Express™ technology; the record-breaking HP ProLiant DL585 using four dual-core processors; and a Sun Fire V40z server powered by four dual-core AMD Opteron processors.



"Dual-core server processors directly address the primary concerns of enterprise customers-more power-efficient solutions that deliver increased performance," said Marty Seyer, corporate vice president and general manager of the Microprocessor Business Unit, Computation Products Group, AMD. "Since 1999, we've been developing a multi-core strategy in collaboration with our customers. Because customer needs drive our innovations, customers will be able to adopt upcoming dual-core AMD64 processor-based systems without disrupting their existing infrastructure. We are committed to introducing straightforward technologies that deliver the best performance."



To date, AMD is the only company to publicly demonstrate an x86 dual-core server solution. AMD has been shipping production samples of dual-core AMD Opteron processors to partners since January and plans to introduce a dual-core processor line-up for the one- to eight-socket server and workstation markets in mid-2005 based on the existing 940-pin socket. AMD64 dual-core processors for the client market are expected to follow in the second half of 2005.



Dual-core processors are a natural extension of AMD64 technology with Direct Connect Architecture. Direct Connect Architecture connects multiple processors, the memory controller and the I/O directly to the central processor unit, helping to eliminate the bottlenecks inherent in a front-side bus.

AMD demonstrated the industry's first x86 dual-core processor in August 2004, showing an HP ProLiant DL585 server powered by four dual-core AMD Opteron processors manufactured on 90nm silicon-on-insulator process technology.



The upcoming dual-core AMD Opteron processor is designed to be socket compatible with current AMD Opteron 940-pin sockets that support 90nm AMD Opteron products, providing a streamlined upgrade path while increasing performance and value.



AMD64 dual-core technology is designed to be compatible with x86-based AMD64 applications and many leading software vendors such as Microsoft, Novell, Red Hat and Sun have supported AMD's recommendation to the ISV community to license their software applications by processor. This support will help facilitate a broad industry transition to multi-core technology.