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AMD Barcelona finally ready--HP, Dell prep systems

AMD's long-awaited quad-core Opteron Barcelona processor appears to be ready to go

Brooke Crothers Former CNET contributor
Brooke Crothers writes about mobile computer systems, including laptops, tablets, smartphones: how they define the computing experience and the hardware that makes them tick. He has served as an editor at large at CNET News and a contributing reporter to The New York Times' Bits and Technology sections. His interest in things small began when living in Tokyo in a very small apartment for a very long time.
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Brooke Crothers

AMD's quad-core Barcelona chip for servers is ready to launch--really launch this time.

AMD is shipping the quad-core Barcelona Opteron to channel and distribution partners this week, according to an AMD representative on Thursday. System vendors such as Dell and Hewlett-Packard are readying systems for shipment in the second quarter.

(Correction: AMD is shipping samples of the Barcelona processor to channel and distribution partners not production versions of the chip.)

AMD is shipping the B3 version of the processor that fixes a TLB bug. Large vendors such as Dell, HP, and IBM have been waiting for this version of Barcelona to arrive before they begin shipping systems.

HP ProLiant DL585 G2 Server
HP ProLiant DL585 G2 Server Hewlett-Packard

"We expect to start shipping systems in early Q2," HP spokesman Eric Krueger said Thursday. "We are anxious to get these systems moving soon," he added. HP has had documentation on its site for almost a month describing the HP ProLiant DL585, which Krueger confirms will carry the Barcelona processor.

"Look for us to expand our portfolio (of systems) too," Krueger added. A Dell representative confirmed that his company is also on track for shipment in the second quarter.

Barcelona was launched back in September and has faced repeated production and bug-related delays. Earlier "B2" versions of Barcelona have been going to sophisticated, high-performance computing (HPC) customers who know how to work around the bug.