AMD advances on corporate market - Reviews - Hardware - System Components

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This story was printed from ZDNet Australia.
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AMD advances on corporate market

August 31, 2001
URL: http://www.zdnet.com.au/reviews/hardware/components/soa/AMD-advances-on-corporate-market/0,139023397,120227278,00.htm

Athlon MP logo

Continuing its advance on market territory dominated by Intel, Advanced Micro Devices commenced the global launch of the company's new multi-processor AMD-760 MP chipset for corporate applications in Sydney today. In conjunction with the launch, the chip manufacturer announced the availability of a version of its Athlon processor optimised for the new corporate platform, called the Athlon MP.

After delivering an announcement peppered with veiled references to a large but unnamed force in the international chip market describing it as "a bully", John Robinson, country manager for AMD Australia and New Zealand, said "We are now addressing all segments of the [PC] market".

The Athlon AMD-760 chipset supports two Athlon MP processors, each running on separate 266MHz front side buses. There are currently Athlon MP processors running at speeds of 1GHz and 1.2GHz available for the platform.

The new processor is a version of the Athlon 4 modified for multi-processing tasks. It contains an extended version of the 3Dnow multimedia instruction set - 3DNow professional -- which contains 52 new instructions and AMD claims that it is 20% more power-efficient than its desktop sibling.

According to AMD, significant server benchmark tests carried out by the company demonstrate that the new twin-Athlon MP systems outperform equivalent Intel systems based on the Pentium III.

Although the company was prepared to single out Pentium III based systems for comparison, it was not prepared to test new chipset's performance against systems based on the Intel's Xeon processor platform.

AMD's key partner in the development of the new platform is motherboard manufacturer Tyan. Tyan CEO Symon Chang said "[The company] is proud to be the first manufacturer to ship system boards based on the AMD's innovative AMD-760 chipset."

The chip manufacturer is betting on long-term compatibility to sell the new platform to the corporate market. "Users can be confident in the processor's compatibility with legacy components and future-proof technology," said Darren Miller product manager for ASI Solutions. "It's ensured by the use of current Socket A design."

During the presentation AMD assured the audience that it will continue to develop products based on Socket A infrastructure till 2003 "and beyond".

The new platform is currently available through 20 OEM suppliers internationally. Three suppliers have accepted the task of manufacturing AMD's new enterprise systems for the Australian market: Optima, ASI and Xenon.

The launch price for the Athlon MP 1.2 and 1.0GHz processors is US$265 and US$215 respectively, when purchased in 1000-unit quantities.