AMD Spreading Sun-shine with 2800+

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AMD Tuesday released a new Athlon MP processor designed for entry-level servers and workstations.

The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based semiconductor maker says its newest addition — the 2800+ — is based on a AMD’s “Barton” core, which features more L2 cache than previous Athlon MP chips, and allows additional information to be stored closer to the processor.

The chip rates at a clock speed of 2.133 GHz, which is incrementally faster than the previous 2600+ series but below its 3000+ XP cousin or AMD’s anticipated Athlon 3200+.

“With the AMD Athlon MP processor 2800+, we are helping to ensure that companies currently standardized on 32-bit applications receive the reliability and price-performance they need from their servers and workstations for mission-critical applications,” AMD vice president Marty Seyer said in a statement.

Among the many partners picking up the new AMD chips, one may be Sun Microsystems , which said it would use 32-bit x86 chips from AMD in some of its upcoming products.

Priced at $275 in 1,000-unit quantities, the chip is compatible with AMD’s stable Socket A infrastructure and supports DDR memory technology. The chips are made using a 0.13 micron copper processor technology at AMD’s Fab 30 in Dresden, Germany.

Like other 32-bit Athlons, the chip offers Smart MP technology for increased data movement, QuantiSpeed architecture with high-speed cache, hardware data pre-fetch, and 3DNow!

Unlike the others, the die size of the AMD Athlon MP processor 2800+ increased to 101mm. The number of transistors also increased to approximately 54.3 million. Previous Athlon processors had approximately 37.6 million transistors and a die size of 84mm.

The Athlon MP 2800+ is also expected to be used in the company’s next-generation chipset — AMD-760 MPX. The die consists of two chips: the AMD-762 system bus controller, or Northbridge, and the AMD-768 peripheral bus controller, or Southbridge. The AMD-760 MPX offers an enhanced 66MHz/64- & 32-bit PCI Bus, which provides an improved high-speed peripheral connection and AC-97 audio support. The new chipset also supports up to two AMD Athlon MP processors with 266MHz front side buses, as well as AGP-4x graphics.