AMD's new bag of chips

AMD's USP World's First: The AMD Opteron processor is the world's first 64-bit processor compatible with the industry standard x86 architecture Seamless Software Migration: AMD's 64-bit technology allows seamless software transition from 32-bit to 64-bit computing Larger Memory Address Capability: Current 32-bit processors have a 4 gigabyte memory addressing capacity. The AMD Opteron has 40-bit physical and 48-bit virtual memory. Systems based on the AMD Opteron can address up to I terabyte of physical memory space and 256 terabytes of virtual memory. Better Speeds: The AMD Opteron TM processor contains 100 million transistors. These 100 million transistors on 130 nanometer technology are on a die of 193 square millimeters in size. Versatility in Functions: AMD Opteron is suitable for different workloads across an enterprise. The 1-2P servers are suitable for firewall, cache and load balancing servers as well as Web servers The 2-4P servers are suitable for the heavy-duty web servers and applications server requirements while the 4P-8P servers are suitable for backend database and storage functionality.

True innovation is innovation that makes the greatest possible technology available to the widest possible audience. True innovation is not just a factor of bigger and better, but innovation measured by its availability and relevancy to end users.

Hector Ruiz, President and CEO
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.

n 2002 AMD's share of the PC market fell to 15 per cent from 22 per cent a year earlier. The company's first-quarter revenue plunged 21 per cent to $714.5 million, leading to a loss of $146.4 million. AMD, however, refuses to say die. Rather the company is busy flexing its muscles to grab the No 1 slot from Intel in the global marketplace. The company is making a lunge by luring major icons to sign up for its new heavy-duty X86 64-bit Opteron processor which it describes as "the largest architectural footprint in the computing industry." That the current and popularly used 32-bit x86 architecture is based on the 80386 processor is more than ten years old (it was introduced in 1985) and guessing by the heavyweights who have endorsed the current product - IBM, Microsoft, Red Hat - AMD may have finally got it right this time.

AMD dubbed Opteron the world's first 64-bit processor compatible with Intel's industry-standard x86 architecture. Researchers have long used 64-bit computing for simulating nuclear blasts or managing big stores of customer data. AMD is betting on the fact that ever-increasing volumes of data is driving customer demand for more powerful applications and solutions, that's stretching the 3-4 GB limits of the 32-bit world. 64-bit architecture, for instance, can address up to 18 million terabytes of data and can process numbers that are 4.3 billion times as large as those processed by their 32-bit computers. In this sense, the advantages of higher performance 64-bit computing, which until now has been reserved only for buyers of costly proprietary architectures, are obvious to business users who need to pump up their data-serving machines with huge amounts of memory. Brian Richardson industry analyst at the META group believes the shift to 64-bit would be an unstoppable trend, "We've had 64-bit computing in niche markets for more than ten years. What I see coming is more of a mass-market potential to begin accelerating a transition to 64-bit enabled applications, to really take advantage of things like very large memory spaces, very sophisticated modeling and simulation in technical computing environments, and extremely high performance in database and data warehousing capabilities not only for government and research capabilities and very high-end corporate environments, but really more 64-bit computing that is more mainstream".

Technically, AMD's extensions of the X86 architecture to the 64-bit world represent an evolutionary rather than a revolutionary technology. Opteron is positioned as a bridge over troubled waters between the 32-bit and the 64-bit computing environment. AMD's enhancements to the X86-64 enables customers to seamlessly port 32-bit applications to the 64-bit platform, without having to replace the entire infrastructure. Opteron's compatibility with virtually the entire installed base of computer technology allows customers to rewrite software for the 64-bit chip anytime they want, driving volume economics into enterprise computing. Nathan Brookwood an analyst at Insight 64 is said in an AMD White paper release: "A transition of this nature can take five-ten years to accomplish and during the interval users need to accommodate a mix a of 32-bit and 64-bit applications. The AMD platform is unique in its approach to delivering 64-bit capabilities along with highly competitive 32-bit performance." In contrast, Opteron's nearest competitor, Intel's Itanium forces customers to rewrite all of their 32-bit programs for the new system. The all-or-nothing transition approach makes it a costly and laborious process the technology for hybrid 32/64-bit environments is appealing to organizations unwilling to commit wholesale to the 64-bit world."

The flexible migration option has helped the chipmaker to gain high customer traction. AMD has initially introduced three models -- the 100, 200 and 800 -- scalable up to 1-way server, 2-way servers and 8-way servers. Many server makers such as RackSaver and Penguin have climbed on to the Opteron bandwagon. Server maker RackSaver, for instance, rolled out three servers powered by the Opteron, including an 88-processor blade server, a four-processor 4U server, and a two-processor 1U rack server. Oracle also announced that it is shipping its Oracle9i Database for the Opteron running 32-bit Linux.

The big question is: Would Opteron help AMD's turnaround? Currently AMD owns 19 per cent of the worldwide market share. AMD officials in India refused to comment on projected growth figures at the Bangalore launch. Opteron's USP of being compatible with 32-bit legacy systems while still offering the capabilities of 64-bit processing has changed the rules of the processor market forever. A veritable Who's Who of the industry has announced support for the product; the impact on AMD's bottomline remains to be seen.

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