AMD Shanghai launched ahead of schedule

Not to be outdone by the fanfare surrounding the release of Intel's Core i7 desktop processor earlier this month, AMD unveiled its long-anticipated Shanghai server chip on Wednesday. This new processor comes ahead of its initial Q1 2009 schedule, and performance benchmarks put it, generally, above competing chips on the market at the moment.

I spoke with George Ou, senior analyst at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, who agrees that the AMD Shanghai is a winner for the mainstream two-socket server market. However, he cautioned that it is only a symbolic victory for AMD, and one it desperately needs. On the other side of the fence, Ou notes that "Intel's next generation two-socket server chip--code named Nehalem-EP--is expected in Q1 2009, and is anticipated to give Intel a monster jump in performance." Indeed, he points to the aggressive pricing that AMD have given Shanghai as confirmation that AMD is aware of the threat posed by the Nehalem-EP. For the more technically inclined, Ou has posted an updated server benchmarks roundup here.

On the server front, IDC has modified its earlier optimistic IT spending forecast to reflect a more pessimistic outlook. This news caused a jittery stock market to respond, as share prices for computer makers Dell and HP dropped 5 percent. The truth, though, is that depressed IT budgets will likely result in an increased shift toward virtualization--empowered by better pro-virtualization processors like AMD's Shanghai--and cloud-based offerings. Either way, the result can only mean sales of fewer servers. Indeed, Serena Software was the latest to migrate from its Exchange-based messaging service to Google's Gmail platform. And no, Google has no use for traditional server hardware.

Is your organization scaling back on hardware investments yet? - Paul

Last week's Editor's Corner:
Solid-state drives come of age