Dell is preparing to boost its adoption of AMD processors with the introduction of two new low-energy servers.

The two models will be named the PowerEdge 2970 and the PowerEdge Energy Smart 2970. Both will use dual-core Opteron chips and will be designed to work with AMD's forthcoming "Barcelona" line of quad-core processors, scheduled to debut later this year.

The rack-mount servers will contain a pair of Opteron processors at speeds up to 3Ghz, along with a maximum capacity of 32GB of RAM and over 1.1TB of hard drive storage. The servers will support Windows Server 2003, Red Hat and SUSE Linux.

Dell claims that the PowerEdge 2970 will consume 34 per cent less power than the previous line of servers, which used dual-core Intel Xeon chips. The Energy Smart model will offer an additional 21 per cent power saving.

A long-time Intel customer, Dell announced last summer that it would also begin using AMD chips in selected servers and workstations. The two chipmakers are currently locked in a battle in which Intel claims a performance lead, while AMD says that its chips offer a higher " performance per watt."

The PowerEdge 2970 is currently available, while Dell expects the PowerEdge Energy Smart 2970 model to hit the market "in the coming weeks".