Nexus Technologies – IT Company providing Virtualisation Solutions, IT managed Services and IT Consultancy

AMD has launched a server platform combining its six-core Opteron processors with a motherboard chipset supporting HyperTransport 3.0, PCI Express 2.0 and I/O virtualisation, along with low-power server specifications codenamed Kroner.

The server platform, codenamed Fiorano, is designed for AMD’s six-core Istanbul version of the Opteron chip, but is also compatible with the older Shanghai quad-core processors, the company said.

Servers based on the combination, clumsily labelled the Six-core AMD Opteron processor with AMD chipset platform, are expected to be available within weeks from vendors including Tyan, Supermicro, Microway and ZT Systems.

The platform includes three chipset options, the SR5690, SR5670 and SR5650, enabling system vendors to target different markets. The 5650 is more energy efficient for low-power systems, while the 5690 is a high-end performance chipset and the 5670 fits into the mid-range.

AMD director of business development John Fruehe explained in a blog posting that while the three chipsets use the same motherboard socket and drivers, they have different numbers of PCI Express lanes, different power consumption and different pricing.

The chipsets are the first to support both AMD’s HyperTransport 3.0 interconnect and PCI Express 2.0 for I/O. They also provide hardware support for I/O virtualisation, technology that isolates the I/O used by different virtual machines and delivers increased performance.

AMD said the chipsets will also support the Magny-Cours processors due in 2010 that will have up to a dozen cores, but these are set to use a different socket than current Opterons and so customers will not be able to drop the new chips into existing motherboards, as they have previously been able to do.

Meanwhile, the new Kroner platform specifications are optimised for dense environments such as datacentres and cloud computing and enable two twin-socket server boards to fit into a single 1U or 2U chassis.

“After hearing a customer tell me that they have a 4KW limit for their racks and can only put 10 servers in each, a platform like Kroner can go a long way towards helping optimise space in the datacentre,” said Fruehe.

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Analysts IDC have reported that processor sales rose by over 10 per cent for the second quarter of the year, compared to a drop of over ten per cent in the first quarter.

Sales of Intel’s Atom processor led the sales, with shipments increasing by 34 per cent in the second quarter. This move to the smaller, lower powered processor did much to help the ailing chip market.

However, IDC is arning that this may not be a sign of a return to growth in the chip market; more than system builders are building up inventory in certain segments.

“The percentage of Intel’s revenue earned in Asia/Pacific grew from 51 per cnet in 1Q09 to 55 per cent in 2Q09,” noted Shane Rau, director of Semiconductors: Personal Computing research at IDC.

“This fact, combined with the significant sequential ’snap-back’ rise in Intel’s overall processor shipments—particularly Atom shipments—while AMD’s overall shipments were about flat, indicate that the PC processor market didn’t recover in 2Q09. Instead, the market balanced out due to Intel driving Atom processors into ODMs who manufacture the systems, particularly in China and Taiwan.”

The Atom processor is the core for much of the netbook market, the main growth engine for PC sales so far.

Overall in the second quarter Intel had a market share of 78.9 per cent while AMD captured 20.6 per cent. Via mopped up the rest of sales with a 0.5 per cent market share.

However, much of the sales in the second quarter did not reflect business and consumer demand and were more about manufacturers building stock IDC reported.

“Going forward,” added Rau, “IDC believes that ODMs and OEMs have balanced out their inventories and so we can’t rely on inventory replenishment to drive market improvements.”

“Instead, we can only rely on what actual end demand really is, and that means we have to be cautious not to be over-exuberant that, say, the traditional back-to-school PC buying season will materialize into a bullish second half. It won’t.”

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