IBM Follows AMD's "Shanghai" Announcement With New x86 ServersIBM Follows AMD's "Shanghai" Announcement With New x86 Servers

AMD announced its next generation of Opteron processors and IBM immediately announced four servers that use the new chips -- a move that has broader implications for the health of the SMB server arena.As anticipated in a previous posting, AMD has unveiled the next generation of its Opteron (the AMD processor aimed at the x86 server market.) In a less anticipated move, IBM immediately announced four servers that use the new quad-core chips.

The new Opteron chips, code-name Shanghai, represent AMD's long anticipated move down to 45 nm geometry, a geometry that Intel has been using for nearly a year. The first Shanghai processors are 75-watt quad-core devices with clock speeds of 2.3 and 2.7 GHz. There official names are the Opteron 8000 and the Opteron 2000 series.

IBM immediately announced four new servers that use the new Opteron chips, noting that they use as much as 16% less power than the competition.

The new servers include the two-socket BladeCenter LS22 aimed at high performance applications; the BladeCenter LS42 aimed at memory-intensive applications such as virtualization and database servers; the System x3455 for scientific, technical, and financial applications; and the System x3755 with a three-socket configuration.

Meanwhile, AMD has said that there are more versions of Shanghai to come. A desktop version is expected by the end of the year under the codename Deneb. In the first quarter of next year AMD is expected to release a low-power 55-watt version and faster 105-watt version of Shanghai. In the year after that, expect six-core and 12-core Opterons.

As for those broader implications mentioned earlier, it's time to note that competition is good, especially for the users, but AMD has been walloped by Intel during the past year because of AMD's slow move to the new 45 nm geometry. According to IDC, AMD's share of the x86 processor market was as high as 26% the second quarter of 2006, but it fell by exactly half, to 13%, by the start of this year.

With AMD back in the race, and IBM immediately adopting its new chips, real competition appears to be less endangered.