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AMD Hits Milestone in Server Market
DontClickHere writes "According to data from Mercury Research, AMD has finally cracked the 10% mark in x86 instruction set server CPUs. AMD's Chairman had hoped that their server sales would hit 10% at the end of 2004, but they had only reached 5.7%. Some of this gain can be attributed to AMD's introduction of dual core chips in April this year. With Intel only due to ship dual core chips for low end servers later this year, AMD has been handed a golden opportunity to take a larger share in the server market."
AMD hits milestone and cracks the 10% mark: who's gonna pay for the damage, hmm?
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
The main reason is that they sell the only 64-bit consumer chip. Yes, I understand that it is mainly marketing but the Athlon 64s are hot sellers. They need to crack Dell now.
More
I haven't boughten an INtel chip for myself for quite a while. Originally I wanted to support the underdog, but now (without my youthful activism) I just think they create more innovative and better products. I just ordered the pieces to build a server for my company and got AMD64 chip, not an Intel.
not suprising, AMD has been making products that have better quality than Intel since th eAthlon was first launched. The fact I work in a place where 75% are ex-DEC hardware engineers and found out that three fourths of the alpha processor people left before Intel got their hands on that, combined witht he fact half odf them went to AMD and the fact I know someintel people and know that the Xenon is the ONLY chip to have ANY alpha technology integrated says a lot. AMD has been making AMAZING strides in graphics ability. Alpha basically handled ALL Intel x86 and apple stuff better than both of those, was the frist TRUE 64 bit chip. even now intel Itanium is a massive change fromtheir standard, and wwas released AFTER the AMD 64 bit. it's only a matter of time until AMD starts seeing their marketshare increase as the general populace starts to realize that Intel HAS ALREADY become the dinosaur that DEC was.
Wow - AMD gets 10% market penetration for servers.
With good news like this, I wouldn't be surprised if something like Firefox reaching 75 million downloads were to happen! I hope I see a Slashdot story on that soon.
I'm a big tall mofo.
...where can I buy 64 bit processors?
I applaud them for their server sales, but I hope that they will soon develop a power efficient chip for laptops. At the moment they have nothing that can compete with Intel's M chips. Do they have plans to compete with Intel for this market or are they happy to stay in the server market?
I'll probably be modded down for this...
even now intel Itanium is a massive change fromtheir standard, and wwas released AFTER the AMD 64 bit.
The Intel Itanium was released before the Athlon 64. You're thinking of EM64T-enabled Pentium 4s and Xeons.
But yeah, AMD got a lot of very good engineers from DEC.
When calculating the percentage of processors, is AMD counting a dual core as one or two processors?
Tat commentwa s one of teh MOST ddiffcult ive EVER read.
A few years ago I thought the Wintel monopoly was cracking up ... now despite this (good) news that seems further away than for some time.
The constant hostility to Linux from Windows users is just one example - people are frightened of making the change and they cannot understand why something I can give them perfectly legally on a CD/DVD can be as good as or better than something they pay loads for.
So too with Intel - Apple's decision may even be good for Microsoft as it will help freeze out alternative combinations of OS with processors...
Now if Apple got on board (or in bed) they would have an even better chance. I dont want to replace my Mini with a noisy, over heated, power consuming Intel chipped Mini. AMD has a lot to offer.
AMD and FireFox reach 10%? Yay for the little guy...
Hum I think AMD64 was also a pretty good reason for home buyers. The next killer would be a good equivalent of pentium M, AMD is still far behind intel on the laptop ground.
\u262D = \u5350
Everyone knows that AMD's share would seriously change if Dell could be persuaded away from their holdout status.
The two main reasons generally cited for Dell's allegiance to Intel is the millions in advertising and marketting (hard for AMD to compete when they're sitting on a little over a billion and Intel is sitting on something like 11 billion) and early notification of new developments.
The second one I just don't get. I mean, Intel annouced the Itanium in 1994 which consumers didn't see until 2001, two years later than projected and seven after the announcement. Really, how much notice does Dell need? Wouldn't they rather a company that actually gets things out in reasonable time frames?
The main reason for buying Xeons was the range of motherboards available. This is finally beginning to change and there is a lot more AMD stuff, from 1 way to 8 way. And with things like SCSI and SATA RAID cards turning up in PCI express things are looking even better as workstation and server chipsets become interchangeable.
Do they count the dual-cores twice? :-D
Why stick up for big business?
Well, just overclocked an AMD3500+ (about 25% overclocked), and on some programs running 100% CPU (especially RC5-72), it outperforms the intel 3Ghz Xeon by a factor of 2! That way that Mack truck is pretty zippy too!
My wife's sketchblog Blob[p]: Gastrono-me
What?
The K8 processors are way more power efficient then the K7s were. Keep in mind the K7 design came out as a competitor for the P3 processor not the P4.
The K8 is basically one-generation ahead of the P4. I'm sure Intel will catch up though as their Pentium-M is a good design in terms of efficiency.
A dual-core 64-bit Pentium-M would definitely give the AMD a run for some money I'd think...
But anything in the P4 camp and you're basically not making a rational comparison.
Tom
Someday, I'll have a real sig.
Look at the power consumption numbers again and it looks more like Intel is a zippy Fiat that sucks fuel like a Mack truck.
It's not the 90's anymore.
If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. - James Madison
I bet they didn't count my AMD K6-233 powered web server.
I lease an Intel based server right now because back when I first signed up for it, that's all that was offered. Now the datacenter offers AMD based machines and I would love to switch. However, the company will charge me the setup fee on the AMD server and I will have to move everything over myself. It's not a steap fee, but it is enough for me to just stick with what I have. Switching isn't necessary by any means, just something I'd like to do. At any rate, I'd bet there are a lot of other people out there like me. If AMD would subsidize the costs for the datacenters to switch (pay them $20 per user that switches from the Intel machine to AMD) or whatever amount is fair, they could claim a bigger portion of the market.
Maybe it isn't feasible... just my $0.02.
Finance tutorials and more! Understandfinance
Man, would I ever love to see a 64-bit dual-core Pentium M. Supposedly those chips are to be introduced in Q3 or Q4 2006, roughly when Longhorn, er, Windows Vista comes out. That's when I'll hold off buying a new laptop until. But I intend to run Linux on it, so that last point is moot.
Just "gittin-r-done," day after day.
I'd buy one just to have another platform to test against. If it came in laptop form all the better ;-) provided they can keep the power rating. Right now they sit around 22W and the AMD offerings are 30-35W or so. If they can make a dual [with actual performance not just clocked down] and still be less than 30W that would rock.
... there wouldn't be much point to own both I guess... other than geek factor. :-)
Some of my friends say it's a bit overkill to have the X2 and the P4 running but as a professional developer it certainly helps. Though since a 64-bit PentiumM would be ISA compatible with the X2
Tom
Someday, I'll have a real sig.
Cheap car manufacturers, like Hyundai, came into my sights years ago.
I remember when I first saw a Hyundai commercial. It seemed as though every vehicle they made was under $10,000.00.
The cars were so cheap, and so poorly built, the company had an instant reputation for making a very cheap low quality vehicle.
Today, although I know some Hyundai's cost upwards of $30,000.00 -- and carry a 10 year 100,000 mile warranty - I still think of Hyundai of a cheap, poorly made vehicle.
I will probably always think of Hyndai this way, or atleast until they do something truly innovative -- like create some fantastic new vehicle that everyone ELSE tries to immitate - rather than the other way around.
My opinion of AMD was formed much this same way.
AMD made very cheap, inferior processors for years.
Even if AMD is making better CPUs now, comprable in quality and speed to Intel, even -- they still have yet to do something truly innovative to force me to rethink my opinion of them and their product.
Marketing people called in branding. Well, AMD, you're branded. That's the problem from where I sit.
And what's worse, is it seems the moment AMD gets close to intel in quality - they jack their price up to meet or exceed Intel's pricing.
That type of marketing is hardly going to encourage ME to switch from a time honored and trusted manufacturer.
That's just my opinion.
Mod parent up.
The QC issues they used to (or maybe still do? I wouldn't know, I can't get myself to buy one of their chips) have coupled with their lack of response to it has branded them among people in the know. I think this more than anything is preventing their market penetration.
-everphilski-
This week I had to spec out a replacement server when one of ours disappeared thanks to a delivery company, and I really wanted to get a HP DL145, HP's entry level Opteron server. As it turned out CDW's site said there was a two+ week delay in shipping the servers, whereas I needed one pronto. Given that other OEMs have no problem with supply, I can only guess this may be part of AMD's case against Intel putting undue influence on the OEMs.
Damien
7 year and 150k miles later it still runs and the only things i have had to do is put new tires on, change the oil, breaks and about to put some new shocks & struts on.
Tiberon has been the best car i've ever had. Out of Jeep Wranglers, Jeep grand cherokees, mazda 626's, suburus and others.
THe problem is you look at brand as stature and you use that to ignore the good qualities about everything else out there. You have probably never owned a Hyundai so you assume they're cheaply made. (granted they have had some bummers but so has intel..)
You have probably never owned an AMD for the same reason, you believe the hype. You also probably still pay full price for Nike shoes, still wear Girbaud jeans and are afraid to shop at target.
Can't find value in something that doesn't sound cool?
pretty retarded if you ask me
AMD has long since surpassed Intel in quality and innovation. AMD chips now are:
1. faster
2. 64-bit
3. use less power & generate less heat
Intel is now catching up and immitating. Intel kept blathering about how 64-bit is useless on the desktop, then did an aboutface and grudgingly implemented AMD64 instruction set. Intel is also switching back to an updated pentium 3 core (which has now been rebranded as pentium M) proving once again that AMD was right all along: increasing the "megahurtz" while lowering IPC count was a boneheaded idea. And with the new CPU model numbers they are trying to downplay the importance of clock speed -- after years of brainwashing the consumers that this "megahurtz" thing is all that matters.
In short, you are either an Intel shill or you've been living under a rock for the past 5 years.
___
If you think big enough, you'll never have to do it.
Somebody explains to me how a second post, with the first post being just "first post", can be redundant...
It's because the concept of humor is wa-a-a-a-y beyond the grasp of most Slashdot mods. You can check just about any thread and you'll find statements that are at the very least humourous enough to put a smile on your face, not necessarily an all-out laugh, and some humorless mod gave it an overrated, redundant, or off-topic when it should have been given a +1 Funny or at worst left alone unmodded.
Besides, "redundant" doesn't just mean "repetition". It can also mean "unwanted" or "excessive". Apparently, too many Slashdot mods feel that humor is unwanted and excessive in this world. I guess that's an indication of what kind of people they are. They're apparently not very happy people. Life is too short to be like that as far as I'm concerned.
Oh, well. That's enough philosophy on a Friday morning. I'll just sit back now and wait for the "overrated", "offtopic", "troll", and "flamebait" modifications to come rolling in, thus proving my point.
The Overrated mod is for reversing inappropriate, positive mods, not for voicing disagreement with a post.
diesels are usually good on a mileage per gallon rating. That fiat is more like a mustang. It has 8cyl and loves the gas pump, but it is still no match for a specialized hotrod. I would also compare the AMD64 stuff to a large turbo superduty pickup. It may not have a spoiler, but it can haul ass and take names.
Yeah, it's called the Turion. 35W and much lower. Check out the MSI S270 (not on sale in the US yet, but very soon). I believe HP is already using it in their line.
[RIAA] says its concern is artists. That's true, in just the sense that a cattle rancher is concerned about its cattle.
I always figured Apple went with Intel over AMD strictly because of AMD not having the capacity to meet their demand. You have to remember that Apples chip demands are pretty tiny. I believe that it was only 3% of IBMs production capacity. The scary thing is that Inetl just announced last week they are having capacity issues. They do have 4 fabs that are being converted to 65nm, though. The Merom chip will be the one to watch Apple for. Dual core, low power.
[RIAA] says its concern is artists. That's true, in just the sense that a cattle rancher is concerned about its cattle.
All Intel has right now is mud-slinging and politics as far as the chip war is going. AMD is slowly breaking it, but it's TOUGH to break the Intel-rules mentality. Years of work are slowly coming along.
Berto
Why is AMD so bad at communicating to consumers the most basic of messages: WE MAKE FASTER CPU'S!
Guaranteed -- most consumers have no idea that AMD chips are faster.
------ The best brain training is now totally free : )
and I always push AMD processors first. Once I present the benefits of an AMD processor (be it the 64, Sempron, or Turion), the consumer usually goes with the AMD. Occasionally I get the brainwashed retard - "My cousin has a Dell with a Pentium 4, I want a Pentium 4" and can't convince them otherwise. Explaining the benefits of an AMD processor, and letting the customer know that I've been using AMD processors for quite some time usually sways them. AMD... FOR THE NEW REPUBLIC!
[optikshell.com] My weblog / gathering of neat (read geek) stuff.
AMD chips are like a big ole Mack truck. they suck up a lot of juice, but they can hold their own hauling a big load.
It would seem you're operating with outdated information. For the record, current maximum current draw for all Opteron, Athlon64, and Athlon64 X2 chips is 95W. Note that that is the maximum for all chips at all speeds, current and planned, for the Socket 939/940 designs. Independent testing has shown that even the top-end dual-core Opterons consume roughly 89W.
Contrast this to Intel's flagship Pentium 4 EE or the fastest Prescott-based Pentium 4. Independent testing shows a power consumption of at least 119W, in some cases as much as 130W under maximum load. AnandTech and Tom's Hardware have confirmed this.
So, to revise your erroneous statements, AMD chips are like a turbocharged Acura NSX, zippy and frugal with the "gas," but as affordable and reliable as your average Honda. Intel chips are like fuel-guzzling V8's but without the horsepower and torque you'd expect from such gluttony behavior. And they cost more. That's why the P4 has been, for all intents and purposes, completely killed off in favor of Pentium-M derivations, all of which are essentially based on the old Pentium Pro design from the early 90's.
In the end they will lay their freedom at our feet and say to us, Make us your slaves, but feed us. - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Much to my surprise, Sun has become the preferred source for servers in our data center. The reason is the availablity of AMD Opteron servers from Sun. These are replacing Intel Zeon based servers from HP and IBM. They're running Linux, of course.
TWW
"Encyclopedia" is to "Wikipedia" what "Library" is to "Some people at a bus stop"
By AMD's QC issues, you are maybe referring to the lousy *chipsets* from VIA and others. This is what ruined the K7 Athlon's reputation (for reliability, not for raw performance) for a long time. This of course changed for good when Nvidia whipped out the outstanding Nforce 2 chipset, and nowadays it's a hard job to find lemons from any of the various Athlon chipset makers (VIA, SIS, ALI, Nvidia, ATI).
I can't recall such QC problems with AMD's *CPUs*. I distinctly remember they made some outstanding 486 chips, and the K5 and K6 were fine. (But correct me if I happen to be wrong.)
Perhaps AMD's bad rep -- regarding CPUs -- comes from the simple fact that their pre-Athlon processors had to compete in and for the budget end of the market. They never had anything of the status of the expensive (and well-advertised) Intel chips, even when performance was pretty much on par. Marketing schmarketing...
While AMD Turion's aren't quite as good as Pentium M's for laptops, today for desktop I would easily recommend AMD over Intel. Similar reliability (that is, flawless CPU quality and reliable full-featured chipsets), better bang for buck (in most uses).
Let's not even talk about games consoles
Uh, why, which one's 64-bit?
And I mean the CPU registers. When consoles marketeers claim they're 64-bit or 128-bit they mean ALU registers or vector unit, which is like saying the Pentium 3 was a 128-bit processor because it has MMX.
The Gamecube is 32-bit PPC. The Xbox is 32-bit P3. The PS2 is 32-bit MIPS.
Is it just me, or do you get the impression that, on the bell curve of computer knowledge, AMD is slurping up customers from both the low end (where only price matters) and from the high end (where price/performance ratio matters).
Meanwhile, the huge middle part of the market segment continues to buy Intel from Dell, where comfortable historical precedent matters.
"Provided by the management for your protection."
True. AMD won a jackpot by luring those Digital guys. Has been Athlons under my computer's hood since the Classic 750@1000... (And the Nforce2 even made Athlon systems as reliable as all-Intel rigs!)
However, Intel is not quite yet the dead dino. While Itanium was a colossal mistake (and P4 a significant mistake) and the AMD64-copying EM64T a huge embarrasment, the Pentium-M is something AMD can't match today. Turions still eat too much power for the same performance, and 64-bitness doesn't mean squat in laptops. (When it will, expect to see dual-core 64-bit P-Ms in laptops -- they are expected to hit the desktop market next year, and for once there are no serious technology obstacles for it.)
Pentium-M is Intel's saviour. I guess that team in Haifa, Israel got some nice bonuses...
Amazing how the good old Pentium Pro architecture lives on... But if it ain't broken, don't fix it, evolve it.
I still can't seem to find opteron _tower_ servers from IBM, HP or Sun (not even talking about Dell). And I don't think it's AMD's fault...
You can get 1U rack servers from those 3. And a 3U model from Sun. But if you want a "lowish end" cheap tower server you can't get it from any of the big names. Talking about something like one of Dell's PE 1800 servers.
The "bang for buck" sort of stuff. Say what you like, but you do pay a fair bit more for rack stuff and you can't stick 4 normal-sized SCSI drives in a 1U, or stick a fair number of NICs or other stuff in them. Tower servers generally make better "swiss army knife" servers.
Sure, one can get stuff from the "whitebox" manufacturers, but often there aren't enough PCI-X slots, or the frigging cooling/power isn't good enough[1], or you can't get 3 year next business day support with parts and labour (around the world would be good too)...
Sure us geeks can build servers. But most of us aren't paid to build servers for our companies - we have better things to do than to build, test, repair, and retest servers. At most we order a bunch, test them when they arrive, and tell the vendor - "This one is broken. Not paying. Swap it for something that works, and do by tomorrow".
[1] At my workplace we got three 1U servers from a noname manufacturer - and the CPUs _regularly_ throttle down due to heat (they use P4 class CPUs - nope I wasn't the one who ordered them).
I find the lack of AMD Opteron options with low-end servers very frustrating. I'd like the big-name support and options with Opteron performance, but it looks like I'll be building my own if I want something I can trust. When a good chunk of your services depend heavily on memory throughput, AMD is the obvious choice with multi-processor machines.
Sometimes I wish AMD would spin off a sub-division that sells and supports low- and mid-end server hardware.
Fred
"A fool and his freedom are soon parted"
-RMS
Seriously... how much proof do you need that Microsoft and Intel are a duopoly. I am very thankful for the likes of AMD, Linux, Mozilla... and yes Apple is purposefully left off, some of you forget how much of a megalomaniac Jobs is!!!
SINCE the athlon? I'd reckon to say since the K6-2.
this is i a terrific underdog climbing up from the bottom, maybe one day when AMD is on top they'll make a movie about. It'll be like the geek version of Hoosiers or any other sports movie(they seriously all have the same plot).
Don't forget that AMD's x86-64 bit processors support NUMA (non-uniform memory architecture), where as the Intel EMT64 does not. So if you use an operating system, like Linux which has NUMA support built into the kernel, and Opteron chips and a quality motherboard that has seperate memory for each processor, each processor can have its own dedicated memory! If anyone has the link, there was a benchmark out there that really rocked, with NUMA enabled dual Proc Opteron Server kicking intel's offerings.
...chips for a while. There's a ton of them listed here . Look for the ones called EM64T.
And Dell has been selling these 64-bit chips for long time too.
Athlon 64 FX-57: (2.8GHz!) 104W TDP
;)
Pentium 4 571: (the 3.8GHz demon) 115W TDP
So there you have it, the maximum power consumption on non-pathological "power virus" code, for AMD's and Intel's highest-clocked CPUs. If you find a Mack truck that runs on 11% more fuel than a Fiat, let me know, I think that would be kinda cool to drive around in
FWIW, there are certainly some situations where the P4 will jump ahead of the A64FX on performance more than 11%, e.g. mp3 encoding (LAME): 13%, kribibench software renderer (17%), and so on.
And that's all Pentium 4. Don't laugh, but if you can live without absolute leading performance, the Pentium M simply trounces most everything else out there in terms of power consumption:
Opteron 275 @ 43W per core
Pentium M @ 21W (single core)
Basically, power consumption depends on what you buy. Both AMD and Intel offer processors spanning a huge range of power consumption levels, but over the last couple of years Intel has had the upper hand in terms of performance at the low end, because while AMD are selling essentially the one core (K8) in many different guises, Intel have been selling two completely different cores (P7/Netburst' and P6++/'Centrino') for two quite different markets.
Anyone have a guess when the Opteron 280 is likely to be out? That would be the dual-core 2.4GHz part. They have a dual-core Athlon 64 at that speed (the "4800+"), so I'm hoping the Opteron won't be much longer... anyone know?
Your god may be dead, but mine aren't!
Nintendo 64!
Nintendo 64!
Oh, OK. Yep, I didn't know about that - I knew the Gamecube was really only 32-bit so I assumed the N64 wasn't actually 64-bits since it's a generation back. But wikipedia says it is.
I am glad the AMD is moving up in thh computer world but they will never ever beat intels chips. Its always fun to root for the little guy but get real intel will always run the show when it comes to cpus.When ever I buy a puter new or old it must have a intel chip set probalby because of the little blue men commercials back in the day or maybe cuz I know there better chips.