Opteron to keep performance lead in 2006, HP managers say

Advanced Micro Devices Inc.’s (AMD’s) dual-core Opteron processor has enjoyed a significant performance advantage for most of this year over its single-core Xeon competitor from Intel Corp. Intel has released its first dual-core server chip, with another on the way for early next year, but neither of those chips will be superior to Opteron, Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP) managers told users on Tuesday at the HP Technology Forum 2005.

Intel accelerated the launch of a dual-core server chip formerly known as Paxville from the first quarter of next year to last Monday, unveiling the processor at an event in San Francisco. But Intel is not expected to make a significant splash in the market for dual-core servers until the first quarter of next year, when the Dempsey processor for two-socket servers and the Tulsa processor for four-socket servers are released.

Those chips will offer a faster connection to memory than Paxville, and other features such as hardware support for virtualization technology. But customers looking for performance will still want to adopt dual-core Opteron-based servers such as HP’s four-processor ProLiant DL585, said Mario Cooper, program manager for ProLiant servers with HP.

Opteron’s Hypertransport interconnects and integrated memory controller will allow it to maintain a slight advantage over Dempsey and a significant advantage over Tulsa, Cooper told a group of HP users and partners looking for more information on dual-core processors.

HP is in a unique position as one of the only major vendors to sell servers with both Intel and AMD processors. IBM Corp. sells two AMD-based servers alongside dozens of Intel-based servers, but doesn’t promote its AMD servers with the same vigor that HP does.

Even though Intel is increasing the speed of the links between the Dempsey and Tulsa processors and the rest of the system, Opteron’s connection to main memory runs at the clock speed of the processor, 2.4GHz in the case of the fastest Opteron chip, said Steve Cumings, group manager for ProLiant servers, during the briefing. This gives the single-core Opteron an advantage over the single-core Xeon, but in the dual-core world Opteron also benefits from another high-speed link that directly connects both cores on the chip, he said. The two cores on Intel’s dual-core processors have to send data outside the processor, and then back into the chip, in order to exchange information.

Those direct links on Opteron improve the performance of any application that is dependent upon a fast connection to memory, such as enterprise-resource planning applications from companies such as SAP AG, Cooper said. In fact, HP noted a 74 percent increase in the performance of SAP applications on dual-core Opteron servers as compared to single-core servers, he said.

Dempsey, Intel’s dual-core Xeon for servers with two processors, should be very close in performance to Opteron, Cooper said. AMD’s advantage over Intel’s designs are more pronounced in servers with four processors, and the Opteron 800 series should have a clear advantage over Intel’s Tulsa processor early next year, he said.

It’s too early to tell how the competitive tilt between the two processor vendors will look by the end of next year, when Intel begins to release processors based on a new architecture, Cooper said. Intel has shared some preliminary performance data with HP, but HP has not yet tested Woodcrest, the first server processor expected with the new architecture, he said.

While Intel and AMD vie for performance supremacy, Tuesday’s sessions at the HP Technology Forum in Orlando reminded observers that many companies don’t require the ultimate in performance. Cooper and Cumings fielded several basic questions from users and partners who were clearly new to the concept of dual-core chips, even though Intel, AMD, HP and other companies have been talking about them for years.

Derick Hufstader, director of managed services for HP partner NetOne Group in Las Vegas, said most of his small and medium-size business customers are quite content with low-cost servers that deliver enough performance for basic tasks such as file and print serving.

“My customers have 50 to 500 users, you can’t go in and recommend [dual-core servers] and expect to stay in business,” Hufstader said. With both Intel and AMD moving aggressively to dual-core designs, eventually they will have no choice. But for now, Hufstader will advise his customers to wait until dual-core processors become mainstream before deciding on a vendor.