AMD introduces low power Opteron EE processors

AMD has introduced new low-power versions of its server processors in the guise of the Opteron EE.

The chips are based on its 45nm Shanghai part and run at 40 watts rather than the standard parts, which power along at either 55 watts, 75 watts, or 105 watts, depending on the model.

AMD said the low power Opteronss are best suited for cloud computing environments, where energy efficiency and high demand go hand-in-hand.

The new Opteron EE parts are the 2.3GHz Model 2377 and the 2.1GHz Model 2373.

The company claimed the Opteron EE processors, offer a 13 per cent power reduction over the whole platform compared to the standard Opteron HE and 14 per cent less power use from the processor itself when idle.

The launch of these new models is something of a surprise as there was no mention of them on the roadmap when Shanghai launched last November.

In a monthly blog post, John Fruhe, AMD's director of business development for server and workstation products, said that the energy-efficient processors, "have all the features and capabilities of our other processors." He also referred to competitors who "dumb down the design. Strip out features. Restrict the performance. Reduce the capabilities. We don't do this...The new AMD Opteron EE processors have all the features and capabilities of our other processors."

Fruhe is most likley referring to the fact that the low wattage Nehalem processors do not feature Nehalem's headline features, such as Turbo Boost and Hyper Threading.

Intel launched its Nehalem processors for servers last month, with a integrated memory controller-based design that AMD has had since 2004.