<p><span style="font-size: small;"> Last month, AMD launched their Bulldozer architecture on desktops, and </span><a href="http://www.anandtech.com/show/4955/the-bulldozer-review-amd-fx8150-tested"><span style="font-size: small;">the result</span></a><span style="font-size: small;"> was rather underwhelming; however, there are plenty of indications that Bulldozer simply wasn't architected to excel at desktop use models. AMD's &quot;Interlagos&quot; Opteron is now available, doubling the core count of the desktop part and placing its sights firmly on the enterprise server market.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: small;"> The massive Multi Chip Module (MCM) contains eight processor cores (&ldquo;modules&rdquo; as AMD likes to call them) and can process 16 integer and 16 floating point threads per cycle. Each of the 16 integer threads gets their own integer cluster, complete with integer executions units, a load/store unit, and an L1-data cache. The Cluster Multi-Threading (CMT) architecture of Bulldozer should be perfectly suited for server applications that are mostly limited by memory accesses and integer processing. The 16 floating point threads have to share eight clusters of two 128-bit FP units, but those units can process FMAC and AVX instructions; recompile your HPC application with an FMAC and/or AVX capable compiler and the chip could become an HPC monster as well.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: small;"> Server applications also like large caches, and Interlagos has plenty of SRAM cells. The Interlagos package has 32MB cache onboard (L2 and exclusive L3 combined). If all caching fails, it can access four memory channels of DDR3-1600, good for 51.2GB/s of theoretical bandwidth per chip. AMD also added power gating to the cores, so inactive cores can enter a very deep (C6) sleep state and save quite a bit power. This should significantly reduce power in idle and light loads.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: small;"> With all of that potential, the initial clock speeds that AMD could be fit inside a 115W TDP envelope are a bit underwhelming. The fastest 115W Interlagos part right now, the Opteron 6276, has a 2.3GHz base clock. The current Opteron 6276 reaches the same clock speed at the same TDP using a less advanced 45nm SOI process. However, the longer pipeline of the new Bulldozer architecture allows the chip to use Turbo Core to boost to 2.6GHz when running most server workloads, and if only half of the cores are active, the chip is capable of 3.2GHz.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: small;"> The initial desktop launch of Zembezi may have left us wanting more, and Interlagos might offer that. For server workloads at least, this all looks very promising. Let's see what the first &quot;Bulldozer&quot; based Opterons can do.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: small;"><a target="_blank" href="http://www.anandtech.com/show/5058/amds-opteron-interlagos-6200">Read more...</a><br /> </span></p>

Six-core processors for enthusiasts are finally migrating to Sandy Bridge microarchitecture. And in the process they acquire quad-channel memory controller, integrated PCI Express 3.0 controller and extensive overclocking-friendly functionality. Are these innovations enough to help them set new performance records ?

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Antec's existing Performance One series, peaking with the P183 and P190, has become a standard for silent, high performance computing. These enclosures have been extremely popular from the word "go," and for a long time the P180 and its descendants have been easy recommendations. But you could argue the designs are starting to feel a little outdated, and while Antec's recent Solo II was an interesting step forward, it felt like a tentative one.

The new P280, on the other hand, is a major evolution. Intended not as a refresh of the P183 but to exist alongside it, the P280 features some radical changes for Antec in terms of design while lowering the cost of entry for the entire line. Is it a smart evolution, or did Antec's engineers split too many decisions in trying to appeal to both silent computing and high performance markets ?

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<p><span style="font-size: small;"> If you look carefully enough, you may notice that things are changing. It first became apparent shortly after the release of Nehalem. Intel bifurcated the performance desktop space by embracing a two-socket strategy, something we'd never seen from Intel and only once from AMD in the early Athlon 64 days (Socket-940 and Socket-754).</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: small;"> LGA-1366 came first, but by the time LGA-1156 arrived a year later it no longer made sense to recommend Intel's high-end Nehalem platform. Lynnfield was nearly as fast and the entire platform was more affordable.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: small;"> When Sandy Bridge launched earlier this year, all we got was the mainstream desktop version. No one complained because it was fast enough, but we all knew an ultra high-end desktop part was in the works. A true successor to Nehalem's LGA-1366 platform for those who waited all this time.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: small;">After some delays, Sandy Bridge E is finally here. The platform is actually pretty simple to talk about. There's a new socket: LGA-2011, a new chipset Intel's X79 and of course the Sandy Bridge E CPU itself. Read on for our review !</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: small;"><a target="_blank" href="http://www.anandtech.com/show/5091/intel-core-i7-3960x-sandy-bridge-e-review-keeping-the-high-end-alive">Read more...</a><br /> </span></p>