AMD Opetron

Opetron 150, 250, and 850 chips will operate at 2.4 GHz speeds, according to Ben Williams, Vice President of AMD's Server and Workstation Unit. AMD's previous Opetron models named as 148, 248, and 848 were clocked at 2.2 GHz clock speeds.

According to AMD, the number system of the Opetron processors give a quick measurement of their performance. The first digit in the chip name indicates whether the processor is designed for one-way, two-way, four-way, or eight-way servers. The second digit, however, gives the performance measurements.

The Opetron 250 is designed for two-way servers, while the 850 chip is designed for four-way and eight-way servers, reported Williams.

These Opetrons support 64-bit instructions and are required to run on a 64-bit Operating System, but the processors are backwards compatible with 32-bit applications so enterprise consumers can run both 32-bit and 64-bit applications on the server utilizing the new chips.

IBM, Sun Microsystems, and HP will be the company's top three partners. It has led the chip giant and AMD's competitor, Intel Corp. to announce similar processors.

These processors consume 89 watts of power, according to AMD. The second largest chip maker also said that it plans to release low-powered, slower Opetrons by the end of this year.

The Opteron 250 is available in the market and costs $851.00 in quantities of 1,000 units. The Opteron 150 and 850 will be available within 30 days, and cost $637.00 and $1514.00, respectively.