The Launch Event

This content was originally featured on Amdmb.com and has been converted to PC Perspective’s website. Some color changes and flaws may appear.

The official launch event for the AMD Opteron Processor was held in New York at the Altman Hotel. It was typical of product releases in the technology world having a press conference and presentation followed by a Q&A session and then finally some demonstrations from partners and suppliers.

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Yes, that is Bob Costas…

On hand at this event included companies such as Angstrom, Appro, Boxx Technologies, Celestica, Einux, Newisys, NVIDIA, Western Scientific and Computer Associates. Most were showing off their solutions based on the AMD Opteron processor including rack mount servers and workstation machines. Several companies also had blade server solutions on display as well. We’ll have more on each individual companies solutions as they are presented to us.

As is usual for AMD at these kinds of events, AMD had a wall of motherboards that used the Opteron platform. Included below are images of these boards:

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This is the motherboard that is being used in the majority of the servers that are currently for sale using the Opteron processor. It is a design for 1U and 2U cases and offers a wide range of manageability options for system administrators. Don’t expect to see this board for sale on its own.

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The MSI 9131 board is the first and currently the only board certified for use with the AMD Opteron processor. You can expect the Newisys board to follow very shortly. Some of the system designs for sale are using the MSI board.

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Arima is a new name to me but is a big name in the IT industry for reliable equipment.

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Also based on the AMD 8000 chipset series like all the boards above, the Tyan board is following up on the success of the Thunder series for the Athlon MP processors.

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The only motherboard currently on display and showcased using the newly announced nForce3 Pro chipset, the Asus SK8N is currently the design winner for the Boxx Technologies workstation computers.


Overall, I would say the Opteron launch event and immediate success of the Opteron processor and platforms is astounding and all that AMD could have hoped for. I know of at least two large organizations including my university that have already made orders for an initial batch of Opteron servers based on the press that AMD has been receiving.

There is only one more thing to briefly discuss, and that is the nForce3 chipset that NVIDIA announced this week…

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