AMD claims power saving in updated Shanghai

AMD on Monday updated its line of 45nm quad-core Opteron processors with five new energy-efficient models aimed at helping datacentre managers cut back on power costs.

At the same time, it announced two high-performance 45nm quad-core processors that run at 2.8GHz. The new chips will expand AMD's 45nm Opteron line-up, code-named Shanghai, that it launched in November.

The five low-power AMD Opteron HE processors have speeds ranging from 2.1GHz to 2.3GHz, and use 55 watts of what AMD calls 'average CPU power'. The chips are meant to help businesses "maximise performance during peak hours while managing the energy costs during idle and low-utilisation hours", the company said in a statement. During these idle periods, servers using the new processors will consume 20 percent less power than they would with the older Shanghai chips, the company claimed.

The processor is available in eight server systems from HP, Rackable Systems, Dell and Sun.

"In the second quarter AMD plans to take energy efficiency to the next level in introducing even lower ACP processors for the unique demands of cloud-computing environments", Patrick Patla, general manager of the server and workstation business for AMD, said in a statement.

The five energy-efficient processors are designated 'HE', and cost from $316 (£220) for the 2372 model. The two high-performance processors are designated 'SE', and cost $2,649 for the 8386 and $1,165 for the 2386.