AMD has introduced new versions of its Opteron processors featuring hardware support for virtualisation, better power efficiency, and a new motherboard socket that paves the way for quad-core designs due next year that will fit four processors on a single chip.

Available immediately, the Next-Generation Opteron processors are all dual-core chips designed to offer higher performance through support for faster DDR2 memory. HP and IBM announced updates to their server lines running the new chips, while Sun said it would use Next-Generation Opterons in its Ultra 20 workstations.

Like previous Opterons, the new chips are split into three groups, with the 1000 series aimed at single-socket systems, the 2000 series supporting up to two sockets and the 8000 series up to eight sockets.

AMD is pushing the performance-per-watt capabilities of the new chips, many of which consume no more than 95W at clock speeds up to 2.6GHz. There are also power-optimised models identified by a HE suffix that consume less than 68W at speeds up to 2.4GHz, while performance-optimised SE models run at 3GHz and consume up to 125W.

"Customers will see better performance scaling with these Opterons, but the real key is that DDR2 memory operates at 3.3V instead of 5V, which is a 33 percent power reduction straight off," said John Fruehe, worldwide market development manager for AMD's server and workstation business.

The move to DDR2 requires a new motherboard socket, the 1207-pin Socket F, because more signals are needed to control this memory, Fruehe said. This means that current Opteron systems cannot be upgraded with these chips, but the new infrastructure provides a seamless upgrade path to quad-core Opterons next year.

Fruehe said that the extra connections of Socket F will allow future Opterons to add more HyperTransport links to ensure performance scales up with more cores on the same chip. However, AMD's quad-core chips will keep power consumption within existing constraints, which will enable firms to beef up datacentres without worrying about rising power requirements and heat problems, according to Fruehe.