AMD shows off six-core Istanbul processor

New chips will be available sometime in the second half of 2009

The six-core Istanbul is built on a 45nm process

AMD has demonstrated its new six-core Opteron processor, dubbed Istanbul, to the press for the first time.

An upgrade from the firm's current four-core Shanghai Opterons, the six-core Istanbul is a 45nm processor with 6MB of L3 cache able to slot into Socket F-style motherboards.

The company claimed that Istanbul bridges the socket 1207 world and six-core Direct Connect architecture, and that it will deliver 12, 24 or 48 cores per server in the future.

AMD also said that, despite the additional cores, it has managed to keep the processor in the same power and thermal ranges as Shanghai.

AMD put its latest offering through its paces at the demonstration, showing how a platform could be easily upgraded from Shanghai to Istanbul, demonstrating improved memory throughput thanks to a new HT Assist feature, and exhibiting a four-socket server with all 24 cores being stressed by an AMD development programme.

"It is everything we had hoped for and more," said John Fruehe, director of business development for server/workstation products at AMD in a blog post.

AMD has said that Istanbul processors will be available sometime in the second half of 2009, but has declined to be more specific. The reported success of the demo, however, would indicate that AMD may release Istanbul Opterons sooner rather than later.

The chip maker is planning a full line up of six-core Opterons based on Istanbul, including low-power HE versions and high-performance SE models.

"End users will be able to quickly qualify and deploy these servers because the overall platform is the same as what they are using," said Fruehe.