AMD announced a program that offers an extended product life cycle to support system designers in the high-end, high-performance embedded market with the AMD Opteron processor.
The stable and reliable AMD64 platform with Direct Connect Architecture will now be offered with an extended standard availability period of five years for a select set of the AMD Opteron processor family. AMD is providing customers in telecommunications servers, storage systems, digital imaging devices and custom embedded markets an unparalleled choice in x86-based advanced processor architecture.
“Embedded customers have design, qualification and product life cycles that are longer than mainstream PCs and servers, but still require the highest level of processor performance,” said Iain Morris, senior vice president, Personal Connectivity Solutions Group at AMD. “AMD is responding to our customers’ needs with a high-performance embedded processor roadmap for almost every conceivable embedded design, from the AMD Alchemy and AMD Geode processors to the industry-leading AMD Opteron processor. AMD is the leader when it comes to enabling embedded designs for x86.”
“Sun is committed to delivering scalable, reliable and standards-based telecom servers for the network equipment provider market,” said Raju Penumatcha, vice president of Netra Systems and Networking (NSN) at Sun Microsystems. “Our next-generation ATCA blade platform, supporting both Solaris and CG Linux operating systems, will offer customers high-performance 32/64-bit computing, a key benefit achieved with both the Sun UltraSPARC processors and the AMD Opteron processor with Direct Connect Architecture.”
“A number of our customers have been approaching us, asking for 64-bit processor capability on a small platform for quite a while,” said Chiman Patel, CEO and CTO of WIN Enterprises. “The entry of AMD into this market space has enabled us to meet those customers’ unique requirements. We developed our new single-board computer, MB-06047, based on the EBX platform for the embedded market using the AMD Opteron processor. Now that the longevity piece is in place for AMD64 technology, we are able to meet a broader range of our customer requirements for embedded designs on x86 platforms. The level of support we received from AMD through the development phase of the project dramatically helped speed up our delivery time of a finished product.”
Leading chipset, core logic and developer tools companies are also supporting a similar longevity option and giving embedded designers a large portfolio of choice for developing their AMD64 technology-based products.
“AMD Opteron processor features, such as HyperTransport technology and a built-in memory controller, are a great match for the high bandwidth needed by SAN/NAS storage devices, telecom servers, and the digital imaging market,” said Gordon Haff, senior analyst and IT advisor for Illuminata. “With the addition of the AMD Opteron processor to the lineup, AMD is further expanding its embedded product set with a processor that can meet the needs of performance-hungry embedded applications while still taking advantage of the ubiquitous x86 instruction set and its rich hardware and software ecosystem.”
With the support of more than 300 independent software vendors and open source software organizations worldwide, representing 1,050 software packages, AMD64 technology has become the industry standard for simultaneous 32-/64-bit computing. Today, many of AMD’s hardware and software partners are also supporting AMD64-compatible longevity options aimed at enabling the high-end embedded market.
“ATI has strong graphics product support for the embedded market,” said Dave Rolston, vice president, Workstation and Embedded Products, ATI Technologies Inc. “Like AMD, we believe that there’s considerable growth in the embedded market and can recognize incredible performance benefits by offering even more solutions to the robust x86-based ecosystem. ATI’s graphics product line, designed to work well with a variety of system processors including the AMD Opteron processor, is available to the embedded marketplace to meet customer needs for today and well into tomorrow.”
“AMD’s dedication to the x86 embedded market is great news for Broadcom customers,” said Gary Thomas, vice president and general manager of the ServerWorks Product Line at Broadcom. “All components in our HT product family are available for an extended longevity period and will help embedded system designers take advantage of our integrated networking and storage technologies that differentiate the AMD Opteron processor-based platforms in the marketplace.”
“LSI Logic’s RapidChip Xtreme2 family is an ideal complement to the AMD Opteron processor and its Direct Connect Architecture, especially in high-end embedded designs,” said Dave Jones, vice president and general manager, Storage and Computer Custom Solutions at LSI Logic Corporation. “The combination of HyperTransport technology, the AMD Opteron processor and LSI Logic’s RapidChip technology enables a high-performance, highly integrated embedded system design with low development costs and quick time to market.”
“The NVIDIA nForce Professional core-logic solutions are a great solution for high-end embedded markets and are available to designers now,” said Drew Henry, general manager of platform business at NVIDIA. “With the compelling combination of our technology and the AMD Opteron processor’s ability to rapidly move data and significantly decrease latency, as well as its power management capabilities, we believe embedded markets will increasingly rely on x86-based high-performance computing options.”
“The PathScale InfiniPath interconnect solution is ideal for applications such as telecom and high-end embedded devices,” said Len Rosenthal, vice president of marketing at PathScale. “In conjunction with the AMD Opteron processor, which provides substantial data throughput and reduced memory latency on the board, our HyperTransport-connected PathScale InfiniPath technology complements AMD Opteron processors by reducing communication latency in clustered Linux environments. Our entire suite of Linux-based tools supports the longevity requirements of the embedded market.”
The first processors that will be made available to embedded system designers with a five-year longevity option are the AMD Opteron processor Models 852 and 252, which will be available to partners this quarter. The AMD Opteron processor Model 852 is priced at $1,514 in 1,000-unit quantities, Model 252 is priced at $851 in 1,000-unit quantities. The AMD Opteron processor Model 152, for single-processor workstations and entry-level servers, is scheduled to be available in April and will be priced at $637 in 1,000-unit quantities.
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