The decision to discontinue single-core Opteron production is a significant one for AMD, as this line of processors helped the company increase its x86 server market share from 5.4% to 12.7% in the fourth quarter of last year.
Computers from Hewlett-Packard (HP), Sun Microsystems, and IBM have announced plans to integrate single-core Opteron models 156, 256, and 856 into several workstation and server lines. These three new chip models are favored for their operational frequency increase from 2.8 GHz to 3.0 GHz while maintaining a power consumption of 95 watts.
Sun Microsystems intends to incorporate the Opteron 156 processor into the Sun Fire X2100 server line, with the 256 model being used for systems containing 2 CPUs, including the X4100 and X4200. They will also integrate the Opteron 856 in 4-processor servers such as the V40z.
AMD is gradually shifting towards multi-core designs. In March, the company launched dual-core models 185, 285, and 885, targeting the server and workstation markets.
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