AMD recently announced the release of the new 40W Opteron EE processor which will represent the lowest x86 power band for quad core server processors in the AMD range. <\/p>\n
The processor, which offers 13% power savings in platform-level power consumption compared to the previous generation, is designed for very dense datacentre environments, specifically those found in cloud computing. It also offers consumers a full suite of virtualization and power management capabilities. <\/p>\n
The 45nm Opteron EE adds significant power efficiency improvements over the Quad-Core AMD Opteron HE processor within the same platform, boasting a 13% reduction in platform-level power consumption. At the same performance level, the new EE processor delivers up to 62% improved performance-per-watt when compared to the previous generation.<\/p>\n
Both the HE and the EE are designed to reduce the power load demanded by most server processors whilst still providing the same performance. In testing at AMD a 2P server platform with EE processors idled at 115W and only hit 185W at full power. <\/p>\n
Such performance in large datacenters would greatly reduce power costs.<\/p>\n