Say hello to Shanghai, the newest Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor

The new chip boosts performance up to 35 percent while cutting power usage up to 35 percent at idle.

By Laura DiDio

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It’s no secret that AMD has a lot riding on “Shanghai,” the code name for its 45 nanometer (nm) Quad-Core AMD Opteron™ processor. Expectations both within AMD and throughout the technology industry are high for the new chip, which advances and extends AMD’s existing Barcelona 65nm processor architecture.

Specifically, Shanghai delivers the following:

A performance increase of up to 35 percent over the prior “Barcelona” Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor
Power consumption decreases of up to 35 percent at idle: This conserves processor power and reduces energy costs.
Double the Static RAM (SRAM) memory: The 45nm Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor features 8 MB SRAM, versus Barcelona’s 4 MB SRAM.
Embedded support for virtualization and Internet-based cloud computing applications
Live virtual machine migrations: This allows IT departments to move virtual machines from one physical host to another without having to take them offline, which saves both time and manpower costs.
A 200 percent increase in Level 3 cache size to 6 MB: This helps accelerate memory-intensive applications like virtualization and database processing.

In sum, the 45nm Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor will give AMD’s hardware partners—and ultimately corporate end users as well—improved performance in a smaller, more energy efficient form factor that takes full advantage of emerging virtualization technologies and applications.

Don Scansen, a technology analyst at Semiconductor Insights in Ottawa, Canada, says all indications are that Shanghai’s release will yield positive results for AMD, its partners, and its customers.

“Shanghai should significantly strengthen AMD’s market position. It’s an evolutionary chip design in the new 45nm process, which will enable the Quad-Core [AMD] Opteron processor to achieve better performance [and] lower power consumption, and in a smaller form factor,” Scansen says.

“Reducing the size of the Shanghai processor lets AMD cut its production costs,” he adds. “Theoretically, those cost savings can be passed on to OEMs.”

AMD is similarly upbeat about Shanghai. In a prepared statement issued shortly before the new processor’s official launch, Randy Allen, senior vice president of AMD’s Computing Solutions Group, said that the 45nm Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor “represents the most dramatic performance and performance-per-watt increases for AMD products since the introduction of the world’s first x86 dual-core processors by AMD nearly four years ago.”

Shanghai’s higher processor speed, smaller size, and lower power consumption all combine to help OEMs and corporations achieve greater economies of scale while “giving them the innovations they need to build for the future. It’s the right technology at the right time,” Allen said.

Hardware OEMs such as Dell, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, and Sun Microsystems agree. All have already announced support for the 45nm Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor. To date, more than 32 global OEMs have announced that they will have server hardware platforms based on the 45nm Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor available by the end of 2008.

[See related content: Special Supercomputing 08 Video: Sun Microsystems's Yan Fisher]

According to AMD, 75-watt versions of the 45nm Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor are available now. In addition, enhanced Quad-Core AMD Opteron HE (55-watt) and SE (105-watt) processors are planned for the first quarter of 2009.

AMD also plans to make its 45nm Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor available on desktop PCs in a product code named “Dragon.” The AMD “Dragon” platform, also planned for the first quarter of 2009, is designed to harness the power of fusion by optimizing the performance of new 45nm AMD Phenom™ II X4 quad-core processors with award-winning AMD 700 Series chipsets and ATI Radeon™ HD 4000 series graphics.