AMD's Barcelona: benchmarks

On 10 September 2007, AMD launched its first quad-core Opteron server processors. Codenamed Barcelona, these chips are initially destined for 2-way and 4-way servers that will hit the market in November. Later, we'll see quad-core processors for desktop systems too — the first PCs powered by the AMD Phenom are due in December.

Opteron models from the 2300 series are designed for 2-way systems, while 4-way servers will be built around the 8300 series. Meanwhile, Intel has had quad-core server processors available since November 2006, in the shape of the Xeon 5300 series. And just before AMD's Barcelona launch, Intel introduced a new 4-way server platform, codenamed Caneland, based on the Xeon 7300 'Tigerton' chips and 7300 'Clarksboro' chipset.

Both of the new quad-core Opteron series use 4 x 512KB of Level 2 cache and a large 2MB Level 3 cache. The clock frequencies of the new chips are disappointing at first sight, AMD's current production processes only allowing speeds up to 2GHz. However, the manufacturer hopes to be able to offer quad-core Opterons with higher clock speeds (up to 3GHz) soon. But even with their relatively low clock speeds, AMD's first quad-core server processors deliver convincing performance levels, as the benchmark results presented in the next section show.

Opteron (Barcelona) processors for 2-way servers

Opteron (Barcelona) processors for 4-way servers