AMD intros 852, 252 Opteron chips

CHIP FIRM AMD formally announced the 852 and 252 Opterons aimed at one CPU to eight CPU servers.

It also confirmed the hypertransport speed is now 1GHz, using the 8132 PCI-X 2.0 tunnel. Opteron chips now also support multimedia instructions invented by Intel, and dubbed SSE3.

AMD said that servers using the processors will also include Powernow technology soon - that's a way of cutting down clock speeds to save power.

HP said it is introducing the Proliant DL385 and the HP XW9300 workstation - and said these will be able to support dual core chips in time.

Sun and IBM also announced boxes based on the chips, as did Egenera, which introduced two and four way blades for its Blade Frame system.

The chips will be delivered to AMD customers inside 30 days. The 852 will cost $1,514 when you buy 1,000 of them, while the 252 costs $851 in similar quantities. The 152 will cost $637 when you buy 1,000 of them.

Full details of AMD's pricing is on its website, here. µ

* AMD ALSO said it has released two reference development boards based on the Geode - the DBSC1100 and the DBSC1200.

** AND if you want to see the different steppings and specs for the Opterons, now go here, for AMD's quick ref guide to Opterons.