Yes, AMD leads in virtualization. At work I was surprised to discover, via my own benchmarks with KVM-78 under Linux, that a 2.2GHz Phenom 9550 was literally kicking the ass of a 2.4GHz Core2 Q6600 by as much as 20-30% (the VMs were compiling C++ and Java code). Not only AMD is cheaper, but consumes less power, and do more at a slower frequency !

My guess is that the IMC (Integrated Memory Controller) and NPT feature (Nested Page Table) are mostly responsible for this lead... Intel is supposed to introduce their own version of NPT in Nehalem, it will be called EPT (Extended Page Table). Only thing, 2-socket Nehalems won't ship before 2009 Q2, so AMD will keep its lead for a while...

Competition from the lesser green team is very welcomed but i still remember an article for the not so lovable fat boy (charlie) stating Barcelona was going to be around 15% faster than core2 clock for clock and although it will be clocking 2.7Ghz when it hits. The clock for clock advantage will make up for it. The result? Well Core2 was infact that 15% faster and Ghz was down the drain. Personally i think it will be competitive with Penryn clock for clock but then you can still overclock thoes two 4+ ghz and then there is Nehalem. PS fat boi the anti- nvidia thing is getting old jus report the facts ok

Kem, I don't know where you read that Intel leads in virtualization, but looking at vmwares numbers it looks like AMD does. From http://www.vmware.com/products/vmmark/results.html:
8 core, 2 socket:
1. Dell AMD 2384 2.7G: 11.2@8 tiles
2. HP Intel Xeon 3.33G: 9.15@7 tiles

16 cores, 4 socket:
1. Dell AMD 8384 2.7G: 20.35@14 tiles
2-9 various AMD systems
10. HP Intel Xeon 2.93G: 14.14@10 tiles

Granted it does look like Intel owns the 4 core benchy, but then again there is only one system in that catagory.

Ya I seen the numbers compared to Penryn using FD dimms it looks good. But thats it. I have seen the Numbers for intels server IC7 . K10.5 is a dog in comparison . To bad for AMD . Times are Bad . Gives intel time to get IC& server parts out . There is NO comparison. 

Penryn server parts will be way cheaper than AMDs . IC7 will do the dirty work .

Charlie has posted an article about AMD! Where are the Nvidia fanboies? Where are the flames!

BTW, I like your article, Charlie.

AMD leads in virtualization???? 
there is no independent benchmark for virtualization, only vmmark - which is vmware exclusive,,,
and secondly has Intel has leadership in this benchmark and will continue even with shanghai. By the time HT3 based performance is available (mid 09), nahalem will be out and sink any hope of "virtualization leadership" for AMD. 
More competitive than barcelona, yes, but not really competitive.

wonderful writeup and seem like a good product. 

can't wait to see independent benchmarks. btw, just checked the oem websites, no one seem to have it for sale yet...