AMD adds speed to Shanghai processors

AMD expanded its Opteron server processor lineup, lowering the bar on power drawn while raising the performance of chips.

The company launched 12 new quad-core Opteron chips, which include chips operating at speeds ranging from 2.1GHz and 3.1GHz. The chips draw between 40 watts and 105 watts of power and belong to AMD's family of server processors code-named Shanghai.

The chips also include two new Opteron SE chips running at 3.1GHz, which could be fastest server processor to date on clock speed. Previous Opteron chips ran at a maximum of 2.8GHz. The SE chips draw about 105 watts of power.

Also launched were two low-power Opteron EE chips that deliver similar performance while drawing significantly less power than its predecessors, according to AMD. The quad-core chips operate at around 40 watts, which is less the existing Opteron HE chips that 55 watts.

The Opteron EE 2377 operates at 2.3GHz and is priced at US$698. The Opteron EE 2373 chip runs at 2.1GHz and is priced at $377. The chips are manufactured using a 45-nanometer manufacturing process.

The announcement of chips comes just a day after AMD said that it would ship its six-core Opteron processor codenamed Istanbul in May. AMD claims Istanbul delivers better performance while drawing the same amount of power as existing quad-core Shanghai server chips.

New Opteron models running between 2.4GHz and 2.9GHz were also launched by the company.