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AMD demonstrates its quad-core server chip

CBSNews

Advanced Micro Devices now has a quad-core server chip that's good enough for demonstration purposes. The company showed off a server running four of the processors at a meeting for analysts Thursday.

AMD plans to release its quad-core server chip, currently code-named Barcelona, in the middle of next year. It's behind Intel, which launched a quad-core server chip last month.

But, just as Intel claimed when it was behind on dual-core designs, AMD doesn't think this is a race. In downplaying the quad-core gap, AMD cited the "native" quad-core design it chose for its processor as the reason for its measured approach to the quad-core goal, saying customers wanted an processor in which all four cores are integrated onto a single piece of silicon.

Intel chose a "mashup" design (can someone ban this word from the language?) for its first quad-core processors, putting two Xeon 5100 series processors into a single package. AMD thinks four cores integrated onto a single processor will deliver performance and power efficiency advantages, but until Barcelona arrives it's impossible to say for sure. Intel has said it wanted to get out into the market quickly, so it chose the easier-to-implement multichip package design.

AMD's quad-core chips will fit into the server motherboards its partners are currently selling for its dual-core server chips. They will become members of the Opteron 8000 family when they arrive next year.