AMD cual-core Opteron shows speed boost of 30 to 55 percent

AMD on Tuesday detailed performance results for its forthcoming dual-core Opteron processor, showing a speed boost of 30 percent to 55 percent, compared with today's single-core models.

In addition, AMD said the dual-core Opteron chips will be about the same size and produce the same amount of waste heat as current single-core Opterons, Kevin McGrath, manager of the Opteron architecture, said in a speech at the Fall Processor Forum here. That means the new chips will fit into the existing server designs.

Dual-core chips put two processing engines on the same slice of silicon, a way of letting chips do more work. The change is made possible by moves to more advanced manufacturing processes with smaller features that permit more circuitry to be squeezed into a given area.

More info at Cnet