AMD begins shipping "Magny-Cours" Opteron

[Jos]

AMD has revealed it's already started revenue shipments of its anticipated twelve-core AMD Opteron processors, code-named Magny-Cours. The company said that the shipments are limited and are intended to prepare for the launch of servers powered by the new chips later this quarter.

According to information from unofficial sources cited by X-bit Labs, Opteron 6000-series processors will service TDPs from 85W to 140W and offer clock speeds between 1.70GHz and 2.4GHz. They are designed to fit into the elongated Socket G34 and are expected to include 12MB of L3 cache along with DDR3 memory support. Essentially, Magny-Cours is a multi-chip module version of the upcoming six-core Lisbon, which itself is a refined version of the current Istanbul hexacore chip for servers.

Even though clock-speeds are not that impressive, and TDPs are somewhat higher compared to existing multi-processor platforms, AMD hopes that its next-generation servers will still offer some serious processing power and great performance-per-watt. The company is also expected to release eight-core variants of Magny-Cours.

For its part, Intel is getting ready to launch the 32nm six-core/twelve-thread Gulftown, which will work at higher frequencies than AMD's chips, followed shortly by eight-core/sixteen-thread Beckton CPUs.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/37972-amd-begins-shipping-magny-cours-opteron.html

 

[Technochicken]

The name of this CPU is killing me. Not that it is especially important, but basically naming a cpu with a lot of cores "Many-Cores" is kind pathetic.

 

[TomSEA]

LOL...never thought about it until you pointed it out, technochicken.

I'm still scratching my head why all the CPU makers are going for these mongo-core chips. Obviously they've hit a processing rate ceiling and are looking at other ways to make a chip faster. But there aren't but a handful of software apps that can utilize dual-core much less anything more than that. What the hell good is a 12-core chip if only two cores can be used due to software limitations?

 

[red1776]

I think i bought a six pack of Magny-cours last week

 

[Vrmithrax]

When you are talking about server CPUs, multi-core systems are much better utilized than in mainstream computing. They've been able to "dual-core" it before dual core even existed, back when you had to put 2 separate CPUs on a board to parallel process. These days, most server-specific apps are written to take advantage of multi-core hardware (even if it might only be smart division of processing loads as opposed to full-on parallel coding).

And in server, clock speed don't necessarily have to be "impressive." Throughput optimization, efficient caching, and multi-thread handling tend to give the overall performance of the processor a boost, rather than the old "just throw more Hz at it" philosophy, which typically translates into higher heat generation / lower power efficiency. Power efficiency and low heat generation is where it's at, when you have rooms full of server stacks to contend with Less A/C = win!

 

[red1776]

okay, lets get this out of the way...ahem...

holy s***, I want one of these! 12 x 2.4Ghz so I can have a 28.8Ghz processor!

well someone was bound to say it.

 

[Technochicken]

okay, lets get this out of the way...ahem...

holy s***, I want one of these! 12 x 2.4Ghz so I can have a 28.8Ghz processor!

well someone was bound to say it.

Even better than that, I think you can get server systems with up to 4 CPU sockets, for a total of 48 x 2.4Ghz of Opteron goodness!

 

[red1776]

Technochicken said:

okay, lets get this out of the way...ahem...

holy s***, I want one of these! 12 x 2.4Ghz so I can have a 28.8Ghz processor!

well someone was bound to say it.

Even better than that, I think you can get server systems with up to 4 CPU sockets, for a total of 48 x 2.4Ghz of Opteron goodness!

Good god man! thats 115.2 Ghz!