AMD Opteron™: Compare AMD and Intel x86 Server Processors: See How AMD vs Intel

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AMD Opteron™ Processor Server Competitive Comparison

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Server System Comparison	Second - Generation AMD Opteron ™ Processor	Intel Xeon processor 5000 series¹	Intel Xeon processor 5100 series¹	Xeon MP 7000 series²	Intel Itanium 2³

Modular, glueless scalability	Yes	Requires Northbridge	Requires Northbridge	Requires Northbridge	Requires Northbridge
SMP Capabilities	Up to 8 sockets/16 cores	Up to 2 sockets/4 cores	Up to 2 Sockets/4 Cores	Up to 8 socket/16 core	Up to 8 sockets / 16 cores
Direct Connect Architecture	Yes	No	No	No	No
Dual-Core technology	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
High Performance 32-bit and 64-bit computing	AMD64	EM64T	EM64T	EM64T	EPIC
HyperTransport™ technology	Yes	No	No	No	No
Integrated DDR memory controller	Yes	No	No	No	No
Hardware-Assisted Virtualization	AMD-Virtualization™	VT	VT	VT	N/A

Front Side Bus frequency	1800 – 3000 MHz†	1066 MHz	1333 MHz	667/800MHz	400 MHz
Front Side Bus bandwidth	14.4 - 24 GB/s†	17 GB/s	21.3 GB/s	10.6GB/s @ 667FSB 12.8GB/s @ 800FSB	12.8GB/s @ 400FSB
Maximum Inter-processor bandwidth	8.0 GB/s	8.5 GB/s	10.6 GB/s	10.6GB/s @ 667FSB 12.8GB/s @ 800FSB	12.8GB/s @ 400FSB
Memory support	RDDR2 400/533/667	FBDIMM 533/667	FBDIMM 533/667	DDR2-400 (up to 64GB)	DDR2 (up to 128GB - chipset dependent)
Memory Bandwidth 1P System	10.6 GB/s††	21.2 GB/s	21.2 GB/s
Memory Bandwidth 2P System	21.2 GB/s†††	21.2 GB/s	21.2 GB/s
Memory Bandwidth 4P System	42.4 GB/s†††	N/A	N/A	10.6GB/s @ 667FSB	6.4 GB/s

L1 cache size (max)	64KB (Data) + 64KB (Instruction) per core	16KB (Data cache per core)+ 12KµOPS(Trace cache per core)	32KB (Data) + 32KB (Instruction) per core	16KB (Data cache per core)+ 12K µOPS (Trace cache per core)	32 KB
L2 cache size (max)	1 MB per core	2MB per core	4MB (Shared)	1MB per core or 2x2MB per core	256 KB
L3 cache size (max)	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	Up to 9 MB
Maximum I/O bandwidth 1P System	8.0 GB/s††	6 GB/s*	6 GB/s*	N/A
Maximum I/O bandwidth 2P System	32.0 GB/s†††	14 GB/s	14 GB/s	N/A
Maximum I/O bandwidth 4P System	32.0 GB/s††††	N/A	N/A	14.0GB/s @ 667FSB 16.0GB/s @ 800FSB	10.6 GB/s
SIMD Instruction Set Support	SSE, SSE2, SSE3	SSE, SSE2, SSE3	SSE, SSE2, SSE3	SSE2, SSE3	N/A

*	5000X Chipset
†	The AMD Opteron™ processor does not have a front side bus. The processor to memory controller interface is on the processor die.
††	AMD 1P System – AMD Opteron™ 1000 Series with Third Party PCIe® Chipset
†††	AMD 2P System – AMD Opteron™ 2000 Series with 1 HyperTransport™ technology Inter-processor Bus and 4 HyperTransport™ technology I/O Buses with DDR2 667 memory
††††	AMD 4P System – AMD Opteron™ 8000 Series with 4 HyperTransport™ technology Inter-processor Buses and 4 HyperTransport™ technology I/O Buses with DDR2 667memory
1)	With Intel E5000P/E5000V chipset (http://developer.intel.com/products/chipsets/e7505/index.htm and http://developer.intel.com/products/chipsets/e7525/index.htm)
2)	With Intel E8501 Chipset (http://developer.intel.com/products/chipsets/e8501/index.htm)
3)	With Intel E8870 chipset (http://developer.intel.com/products/chipsets/e8870/index.htm)

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