Op eWeek kunnen we behalve over het feit dat Intel deze week tijdens het Intel Developers Forum een 64-bits Pentium 4-processor laat zien lezen, ook lezen over AMD's Opteron processor. Om de markt van blade-servers te veroveren zal AMD namelijk deze maand nog twee nieuwe Opteron-processors uitbrengen. Deze twee Opterons zullen een stuk minder energie verbruiken, respectievelijk 30W en 55W, dan de normale Opterons die goed zijn voor maximaal 89W:
Users said that they were months away from developing a 64-bit computing strategy but such Intel chips would be attractive. However, Jevin Jensen, director of technical services for Mohawk Industries Inc. and a user of IBM's Intel-based x440 systems, said he is enthusiastic about the possibilities.
"I was interested in the AMD Opteron, but IBM never took it upstream to the x440 or x445 platform," said Jensen in Calhoun, Ga.
Meanwhile, Sun Microsystems Inc., also of Santa Clara, last week refreshed its entire midrange and high-end systems with its new UltraSPARC IV chip. Sun also announced last week that it was buying server technology company Kealia Inc., which is headed by Sun co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim and specializes in server designs for the Opteron.
Fujitsu Computer Systems Corp., also of Sunnyvale, this week will unveil a two-way Xeon midrange blade server, the Primergy BX600.