While they may not be much use for high-performance servers, cloud computers often require processors that can handle a large number of low-intensity tasks at once. It's also important that the CPUs can power-down during periods when there isn't any work to do. In this respect, a cluster of low-power Bobcat cores seems to make a lot of sense.
However, the problem, as Fruehe sees it, is that Bobcat cores have been optimised for the consumer market. While they may be low power, the CPUs just haven't been designed to include many of the server-centric features that would be critical to enterprise users.
"Although an extremely efficient core, [Bobcat] was designed for low power client solutions, so things like ECC memory and support for server OSs (through the AMD SR5600 series chipset) have not been figured into the product at this time," he noted.
AMD may position Bobcat for server market
Posted on Wednesday, December 01 2010 @ 0:07 CET by Thomas De Maesschalck