With the introduction of the dual-core AMD chip range next year (hopefully), IBM have decided to upgrade their e325 server to use this new chip. All of this should happen somewhere around the middle of next year, when the new e326 will be available with current Opteron chips and with the dual-core versions.

"The e326 has a starting price of $2,189, but most customers will buy more powerful configurations costing more than $4,000. The systems can accommodate as much as 16GB of memory, have two 100MHz PCI slots and use faster memory than the e325. They're rack-mounted computers 1.75 inches thick. "

All the hardware world seems under the spell of dual-core right now, and rightly so. It presents a wonderful step forward in PC workstation and server hardware. And, of course, all of that tense competition between AMD and Intel to see who will be the multi-core king is great for the consumer, if it means better technology and lower prices.