Chipmaker AMD has formally rolled out its new 45nm Quad-Core Opteron processors. Dubbed “Shanghai” and aimed at the high performance workstation and server market, the new CPUs are designed to offer advanced virtualization capabilities—so one processor can, in effect, host several systems, potentially running different operating systems—and more efficient operation: according to AMD, the new chips offer up to 35 percent more performance than previous AMD processors, while running on up to 35 percent less power. Although the chip comes almost a year after Intel shipped its 45 nm workstation and server processors, AMD is hoping to capture additional marketshare by offering a more efficient chip designed to handle virtualization more easily.
