A new AMD Opteron 6000 series processor is seen on a motherboard during a product launch in Taipei
A new AMD Opteron 6000 series processor is seen on a motherboard during a product launch in Taipei April 14, 2010. REUTERS

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) has unveiled its 16-core x86 Opteron 6200 server chip, formerly code-named Interlagos. The chip maker also launched its 8-core 4200 Series processors, code-named Valencia.

AMD claims that Opteron 6200 is the world's first and only 16-core x86 server processor with the highest core density to handle demanding multi-threaded workloads such as cloud computing, virtualization, high-performance computing (HPC), databases and business application.

The latest chips are designed to provide increased scalability for virtualization with up to 73 percent more memory bandwidth, enabling servers to host more virtual machines and also handle increasing workloads.

AMD said the chips would offer more efficient economics for the Cloud with half the power per core, requiring 2/3 less floor space and up to 2/3 lower platform price. The chips would enhance performance by up to 84 percent and offers 73 percent more memory bandwidth than previous generation chips.

Our industry is at a new juncture; virtualization has provided a new level of reliable consolidation and businesses are now looking to the cloud for even more agility and efficiency. We designed the new AMD Opteron processor for this precise moment, said Paul Struhsaker, corporate vice president and general manager, Commercial Business, AMD.

The Opteron 6200 series has four memory channels and runs at a speed of 3.3GHz, with each of the 16 cores supported by 1MB of Level 2 cache. On the other hand, the 8-core Opteron 4200 series consists of two memory channels and runs at 3.3GHz and the same 1MB of Level 2 cache per core. The speed of both processors can be boosted up to 3.7GHz by using AMD's Turbo Core Technology.

AMD also expanded its 2012 roadmap with the addition of the new AMD Opteron 3000 Series platform, targeting the ultra-dense, ultra-low power 1P Web Hosting/Web Serving and Microserver markets. The first processor will be the 4-8 core CPU code-named Zurich, expected to ship in the first half of 2012.

Zurich is based on the Bulldozer architecture and leverages the new Socket AM3+. AMD Opteron 3000 series offering is designed for hosting customers who require dedicated servers for their customers.

Following is the pricing information of Opteron 6200 and 4200 processors:

AMD Cloud computing Cloud computing Architecture