AMD has released its new 1.9 GHz and 2.3 GHZ Opteron server processors. The processor offers four computing engines in a single-chip package. There's nothing unique about a quad core processor; Intel has had one out on the market for some time. For AMD, however, the introduction of the quad-core processor give the company perhaps its last chance to make inroads into what is essentially Intel's market to lose.

AMD is hoping that its approach to quad-core processing is significantly different enough to improve its market share. Unlike Intel's quad-core processor, AMD's cores reside on a single silicon slab supported by the processor's Direct Connect Architecture to improve the cores' performance. AMD's original claim to about a 25-percent share of the server market was based on its processors' energy efficiency and their servers' ability to support multiple processors. The new Opteron processors carry this energy efficiency forward, and are designed primarily for data center use. ProLiant and HP both have server products that use the AMD chipset.

AMD failed, however, to bring the first quad-core processors to market, allowing Intel to grab the lion's share of the multi-core processor segment. The significant lag time between Intel's quad-core introduction and its own, including a six-month delay in readying the new Opteron, means that AMD's server market share has dropped to about 12- or 13 percent. The processors released today are also slower than Intel's Xeon, a fact which AMD plans to remedy later this year. The new Opteron chips will begin shipping later this month.