AMD: 4-Way Servers Should Be More Affordable.

[god_43]

Advanced Micro Devices on Monday unveiled its new lineup of server microprocessors designed for 2-way and 4-way servers. For the first time in recent history of servers AMD’s new Opteron chips for dual-processor and multi-processor servers are priced equally. Even though the move is somewhat unexpected, AMD claims that it makes a great sense to make multi-processor servers more affordable.

In order to find out more about AMD’s new server plans, X-bit labs recently asked John Fruehe, director of product marketing at AMD’s server and workstation division.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/cpu/dis...ffordable.html


the guy being interviewed comes off angry, like he is annoyed by being asked those questions? but its an online interview, so i am probably seeing elephants where there are none.

looks like amd is trying to save the 4p market eh?

[Movieman]

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/cpu/dis...ffordable.html


the guy being interviewed comes off angry, like he is annoyed by being asked those questions? but its an online interview, so i am probably seeing elephants where there are none.

looks like amd is trying to save the 4p market eh?

Ahh, I don't know if you realise it but the guy being interviewed was our own JF-AMD..
I just read that, didn't see anger, saw a guy answering questions with facts..
Maybe I missed what you saw?

[onex]

where have u been the last 3-4 days ?
we were discussing the crap out of this.

[JF-AMD]

I think he sounded great. But, that is just my opinion.

The 4P market was ~10% in 2000. Here is IDC for 2006 to 2009:
2006: 4.64%
2007: 4.69%
2008: 5.03%
2009: 3.91%

As you can see, the 4P market is in decline. 2P servers have progressed faster, closed the gap in performance and caused people to move away from 4P. People flock to 2P because the price/performance can't be ignored. We needed to do the same thing with 4P.

[JF-AMD]

Ahh, I don't know if you realise it but the guy being interviewed was our own JF-AMD..
I just read that, didn't see anger, saw a guy answering questions with facts..
Maybe I missed what you saw?

Actually, he may have a point. Look on you tube for any video that I am speaking on and turn off the sound. I always do have a scary look on my face. I guess I just don't have that warm and cuddly demeanor.

[Movieman]

I think he sounded great. But, that is just my opinion.

The 4P market was ~10% in 2000. Here is IDC for 2006 to 2009:
2006: 4.64%
2007: 4.69%
2008: 5.03%
2009: 3.91%

As you can see, the 4P market is in decline. 2P servers have progressed faster, closed the gap in performance and caused people to move away from 4P. People flock to 2P because the price/performance can't be ignored. We needed to do the same thing with 4P.

And we at least get a shot at overclocking them!
I had to say that, just had to!

Actually, he may have a point. Look on you tube for any video that I am speaking on and turn off the sound. I always do have a scary look on my face. I guess I just don't have that warm and cuddly demeanor.

You mean an Engineers face on a Marketing guy?
That you just have to change.
Can't sell it if the customer is afraid you going to eat them for lunch..
Wait! On second thought fear might just work!
Buy this or it's into the soup pot with you!
BTW: I worked in Marketing for SOHIO back in the 80's for 10 years.
Been there, got the T Shirt as they say..

[Bobsama]

Well, I'm glad that AMD is trying to promote the 4P market. Intel's had it prohibitively expensive. Throwing the 4Px12C setups out there for a competitive price means that the servers can take less space and provide better performance for less electricity than 2x2Px12C. Not to mention a single license for software and a single box to maintain. When you're looking at 48C and a 500W draw from the outlet, there's little reason to overclock. I know that's heresy around XS, but not every extreme configuration will be overclocked. Wouldn't mind to see faster chips, though. A single 4Px12C server (if I have my numbers correct) would beat your overclocked Westmeres and consume a touch less power while costing about the same or less.

[antiacid]

When you're looking at 48C and a 500W draw from the outlet, there's little reason to overclock. I know that's heresy around XS, but not every extreme configuration will be overclocked.

1- 4p boards aren't exactly overclocking friendly
2- who actually wants to overclock a 1500$ chip (or 6000$ worth of chips on 1 board)?
3- with 24dimms x 8gb, wouldn't you run into stability issues pretty quickly?

Anyway, I doubt anyone around here has the money for that kind of system anyway (I'm estimating 6k for cpus, 12k for 24x8gb @ 500$, another 2k for chassis/mobo/psu/gpu etc...20k for 1 machine? Before taxes? come on!)

It's interesting that they'd try to revive an entire market segment through price cuts though. It is definitely a bold move. I'm thinking the guy who came up with that idea will either lose his job or get a big bonus :P

[kl0012]

I would like to see any opteron 61xx test in 4p servers. It seems there are no such tests out yet which is pretty strange.

[JF-AMD]

4P 8-core FP:



4P 12-core FP (not top bin):



4P 8-core INT:



4P 12-core INT:



4P Stream (not updated for Beckton but Beckton is lower...):




4P Value:

[kl0012]

Estimation? What does this means? You have no real systems?

[s0lid]

2- who actually wants to overclock a 1500$ chip (or 6000$ worth of chips on 1 board)?

About everybody in XS's WCG and F@H team

[Sn0wm@n]

does this mean movieman will become the official 4p guy in future years??? LOL

[zalbard]

does this mean movieman will become the official 4p guy in future years??? LOL

Haha, I was thinking the same!
Should've renamed the thread to: "Great news for Movieman: AMD thinks 4-Way Servers Should Be More Affordable".

And looking at the graphs above I see that, indeed, the value of these new CPUs is amazing. And this is a very important figure for the server market so these CPUs will sell.

[[XC] gomeler]

I'm really REALLY digging the pricing on these 4P compatible chips. The gobs of memory bandwidth are awesome to boot. Now you just need to pump the IMC to 2.2GHz to 2.4GHz vs the 1.8GHz they currently are running at.

Actually, he may have a point. Look on you tube for any video that I am speaking on and turn off the sound. I always do have a scary look on my face. I guess I just don't have that warm and cuddly demeanor.

You just have a serious business face when talking about serious business

[lutjens]

The 4P market was ~10% in 2000. Here is IDC for 2006 to 2009:
2006: 4.64%
2007: 4.69%
2008: 5.03%
2009: 3.91%

As you can see, the 4P market is in decline. 2P servers have progressed faster, closed the gap in performance and caused people to move away from 4P. People flock to 2P because the price/performance can't be ignored. We needed to do the same thing with 4P.

What you say makes a great deal of sense...I feel that many corporate customers will take AMD up on this new line of thinking. Considering that the price for one X7560 Nehalem-EX is 2.5x that of the Opteron 6176 SE, even if Magny-Cours isn't quite as fast in some applications, it'll still be very competitive. For the price of two bare X7560 CPUs, one can buy all four Magny-Cours processors and the 4P motherboard!! Also, corporate customers like continuity and the ability to plan ahead with their purchases. The fact that the G34 socket is compatible with Bulldozer will be a huge selling point with the corporate crowd.

I'm not a fan of Intel's strategy of charging exorbitant prices for relatively obsolete processors that they employ with the Xeon MP. Hopefully, the prices for Magny-Cours will encourage them to re-examine their thinking.

[Serra]

I think it's a great move personally. Nobody uses 4P boards right now unless they absolutely have to for a special application, and even then for the most part people will just load up a blade full of 2P boards instead because of the cost savings.

But once 4P boards are about on par with 2x 2P boards (or slightly less, ideally) the whole equation turns on its head and it's much more worth purchasing the 4P board because you typically save at least space and power, plus performance is a bit better.

[god_43]

Ahh, I don't know if you realise it but the guy being interviewed was our own JF-AMD..
I just read that, didn't see anger, saw a guy answering questions with facts..
Maybe I missed what you saw?

......JF-am.....OOOOH. boy dont i feel like i have egg on my face eh? lol sorry JF-AMD.

wow that means you are like an insider eh? cool! i mean the interview was good....maybe my impression came from you using more facts than charm? now that i think about it; that is probably what it is. i think that the next system i build will be a server like movieman, and this is great news!

[[XC] Oj101]

And we at least get a shot at overclocking
BTW: I worked in Marketing for SOHIO back in the 80's for 10 years.
Been there, got the T Shirt as they say..

I read it as you worked for 80 years in the 10's, it's been a long day.

[Aerwidh]

I read it as you worked for 80 years in the 10's, it's been a long day.

He's not THAT old. Well, not yet anyway

[K404]

I read it as you worked for 80 years in the 10's, it's been a long day.

Did they even HAVE t-shirts back then?


cheaper is good. As long as % 4P sales growth is equal to or more than the % price reduction, everyone wins... obviously

[JF-AMD]

......JF-am.....OOOOH. boy dont i feel like i have egg on my face eh? lol sorry JF-AMD.

wow that means you are like an insider eh? cool! i mean the interview was good....maybe my impression came from you using more facts than charm? now that i think about it; that is probably what it is. i think that the next system i build will be a server like movieman, and this is great news!

No problem, you owe me a beer when I am in your town

Facts are your friends, opinions are difficult to back up.

[anubis]

For once, i TOTALLY agree on topic. 4soc for everyone!






Can i get 100$ cpus now?

[Bobsama]

For once, i TOTALLY agree on topic. 4soc for everyone!






Can i get 100$ cpus now?

If you want a few Opteron 8000's (Barecelona) you can get for <$100 ea. 1.9's iirc. Still, 16 cores for $280 plus $300 for a cheap board and $250 for 8x1GB DDR2 800 ECC.

[zir_blazer]

No problem, you owe me a beer when I am in your town

Facts are your friends, opinions are difficult to back up.

I'm you are coming to Buenos Aires, Argentina, don't forget to call me to drop free product samples There are many people here that doesn't know what real Server Hardware is and I would happily make use of a few Opterons to wipe they computers all over the place.
I also agree with the fact of the "angry engineerer" face capable of making Ronald McDonalds cry. But I think that is fun to see a marketing representative capable of scaring customers instead of the clone drones that we all usually see.


I still firmly believe though that you need Bulldozer in the market as fast as possible, because you're an entire generation behind in per-Core performance and power consumption efficiency, when comparing a K10 vs Nehalem. What I think that it will be interesing to see is a Bulldozer drop in replacement for Magny Cours, that will be pretty easy to do considering that you will have the platform established for then.