[May 15, 2007]

AMD Upgrades Developer Center to Produce Three Generations of Multi-core AMD64 Systems

By Niladri Sekhar Nath

TMCnet Contributing Editor

AMD has upgraded its AMD Developer Center facility. The company plans to offer customers and technology partners access to a testing environment that will cover all three generations of multi-core AMD Opteron processors—including the Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor, code-named “Barcelona.”

The AMD Developer Center offers customers and technology partners access to fully configured Dual-Core AMD Opteron clusters and servers to develop, test and optimize applications. The Center also offers an easy path from single- to dual- and soon quad-core processors.

“These new offerings ensure the AMD Developer Center caters to a wide range of customers and technology partners and their diverse needs,” said Terri Hall, vice president at AMD’s software alliances and solutions division, in a statement.

Hall continued: “From financial services companies managing large trading applications, to media companies running rendering farms, to individual developers looking to stay competitive by harnessing the processing power of multi-core applications, the AMD Developer Center is a vital resource for software developers around the world looking to tune their software to harness the full power of multi-core computing.”

The AMD Developer Center enhancements include an upgraded Smith v2.0 cluster. Built in conjunction with technology partners Colfax International, Mellanox Technologies, W.L. Gore & Associates, Inc., and QLogic Corporation, the upgraded cluster consists of 40 nodes of Second-Generation AMD Opteron processors on an InfiniBand DDR Network.

The Emerald cluster in the AMD Developer Center has been upgraded to AMD Opteron Series 290 processors, resulting in a 30-percent performance increase while keeping power and cooling needs the same as the previous system. Customers and technology partners will find this cluster useful for developing and testing datacenter-class applications.

A total of over 80 Dell (News - Alert) SC1435 and Sun Fire X4100 servers are aimed at individual developers wanting to gain experience running software on AMD hardware, conduct performance testing, and tune their applications. These systems will be the first clusters available for remote benchmarking that will be upgraded to AMD’s upcoming “Barcelona” quad core processors.

Customers and technology partners worldwide can access the AMD Developer Center to test on AMD multi-core systems working onsite or remotely. AMD’s Developer Center is actively working with the software ecosystem to create an environment to help ease code testing and development as well as make sure that tools and systems are available to help utilize the multi-core benefits of AMD’s Barcelona processors.

The AMD Developer Center will offer a platform to test software applications on the upcoming Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor, in addition to the current first- and second-generation AMD Opteron testing platforms. Because of the seamless migration path between its Dual-Core and Quad-Core processors, AMD will be able to offer customers and developers the ability to get a head start on testing and optimizing their applications for Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors.

Ever dreamed about building the next big IP-based communications product or service? Now’s your big chance to learn how! Hop on over to the Communications Developer Conference site to register and get additional info about the event (May 14-17, 2007 at the Hyatt Regency Santa Clara, California)—where you can gain the skills needed to turn your dream into reality. Between sessions at the conference, check out TMCnet’s White Paper Library.

Niladri Sekhar Nath is a contributing writer for TMCnet covering telecommunications, service providers and networking.

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