AMD's most important product launch since the original Athlon will take place today. For the first time AMD will take its chances and go against Intel plans with its 32- and 64-bit capable
Opteron processor.
The Opteron, which is based on the code-named 'Hammer' architecture, will be targeted at the Server & Workstation crowd offering native 32/64bit application support, an integrated memory controller, HyperTransport technology, 1-way to 8-way scalability, among other things.
The whole bunch of reviews are still a couple of hours away, though
TomHW's article has gone up a bit earlier offering detailed impressions on features and performance of the Opteron. AMD itself has also posted extended information on the processor's server performance
here.
Update: New reviews at
Ace's Hardware,
Linux Magazine &
AMDZone. Also guys at Firingsquad have posted an
interview with Tim Sweeney regarding Epic’s 64-bit plans and their thoughts on AMD’s 64-bit approach.