Posts tagged with Suzuka

Brad Pitt’s brother isn’t the only one to live in the shadows of a more famous sibling.  The latest AMD Opteron^TM 1000 Series processor, codenamed “Suzuka”, was launched in the shadow of its 6-core bigger brother, the Six-Core AMD Opteron processor codenamed “Istanbul.”

The AMD Opteron 1000 Series processor is designed for applications that are driven by cost or power concerns more than scalability.  In the past, this meant a single core in a single socket, but in today’s multi-core world, this means four high performance cores in a single socket.

Typically, these processors are used in web servers, small business servers, workstations and even cloud computing.  The flexibility of four cores and a low cost infrastructure gives customers an edge when designing for a cost-effective or power efficient platform.   

With speeds of 2.5GHz, 2.7GHz and 2.9GHz, these single-socket processors pack a punch. It’s based on the same core as the Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor codenamed “Shanghai,” so all the great features that you find in “Shanghai” are also in “Suzuka.”

One of the best parts about my job is that I have access to all the processors that I could ever want for testing.  My server at home migrated from a dual-core AMD Opteron Model 185 processor to a new system board with a quad-core “Budapest,” which is a 2.3GHz processor based on the same core as “Barcelona.”

Recently, I upgraded that server to a pre-production “Suzuka.” I went from a 2.3GHz quad-core with a 2MB cache to a 2.9GHz quad-core processor with a 6MB cache.  I saw an increase in performance, but amazingly, because Suzuka is on AMD’s 45nm process, I actually saw a decrease in total server power draw of about 10 watts. A performance increase, a big drop in power consumption – that makes the performance per watt story even better.

All I needed was a BIOS flash – the processor just dropped right into the same AM2 socket. The entire process was 5 minutes, and that included digging around under the sink to find some rubbing alcohol to clean the thermal paste off of the old processor. This incidentally, was the same process that you would have to go through in updating from a Rev F dual core processor to a “Budapest.”

Many may not know that our code names are derived from Formula 1 race tracks. Suzuka is a race course in Japan; recently it had been renovated and was re-opened in April of this year, just about the same time that we were finishing up the final touches and releasing our own “Suzuka.”

One of the biggest races at Suzuka is the 1000Km endurance race.  A 1000 kilometer race?  Sounds like the perfect compliment for an AMD Opteron 1000 Series processor.  Both are designed for the long haul.

 John Fruehe is the Director of Business Development for Server/Workstation products at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.