SUNNYVALE, Calif. August 8, 2007 — AMD (NYSE: AMD) today announced that leading x86 operating system (OS) vendors are embracing support for AMD’s native Quad-Core AMD Opteron™ processor, code-named “Barcelona.” Microsoft, Novell, Red Hat, Sun, and VMware are optimizing their operating systems and supporting tools and middleware to take full advantage of the increased efficiencies, performance and decreased power consumption enabled by AMD quad-core technology.
By working closely with leading operating system vendors, AMD is providing customers with the ability to choose the operating environment that is best suited to their applications demands. Development efforts by operating systems vendors are primarily focused on leveraging enhanced power management, virtualization, and multi-core features of the upcoming Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor. Since its introduction, the AMD Opteron processor has become a platform of choice on the road maps of Windows, Linux, Solaris, and VMware operating systems.
“AMD and leading operating system vendors are working together to provide a non-disruptive upgrade path to help enable the mainstream adoption of quad-core technology,” said Terri Hall, vice president, Commercial Systems Marketing, AMD. “Operating system support is the cornerstone for ensuring a robust software ecosystem. Our goal is to deliver a computing platform that offers our customers choice, increased application performance and performance-per-watt, and improved operational efficiency.”
Microsoft Windows® Server, Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES), Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), Sun Microsystems' Solaris 10, and VMware ESX are expected to offer versions of their industry leading operating systems that work out-of-the-box with “Barcelona,” the industry’s first native x86 quad-core processors, providing improved performance across a range of applications. “Barcelona’s” enhancements, which will offer increased application performance within the same platform and power envelope as dual-core processing, include native quad-core capabilities, Enhanced AMD PowerNow!™ technology, and Rapid Virtualization Indexing (formally “Nested Paging”) which is a new feature of AMD Virtualization™ technology.
AMD has an established history of working closely with major ISVs and the Open Source Software community to ensure that software applications can easily leverage the innovative features provided by the AMD Opteron processor with Direct Connect Architecture. For the Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor, AMD is working closely with OS, tools, and infrastructure ISVs to ensure the best possible operating environment for the thousands of x86 software applications.
