In the next couple of weeks, AMD and Intel both plan to launch several new processors, from affordable processors to the highest-end models; everybody is now in the battling mode in order to capture those massive orders for the Back-To-School 2009 shopping frenzy.
If our information is correct, May 27th, 2009 will be the launch date of the AMD Opteron 2400 series, e.g. sexa-core processors codenamed Istanbul. As we explained in our previous story, AMD server CPUs are codenamed after Formula One race tracks. Istanbul's predecessor was Shanghai, a track also known to have fascinating races. AMD's original quad-core, Barcelona - was a perfect match of Barcelona's racetrack - buggy and boring as hell.
Getting back on the subject, we learned from multiple sources that the NDA expiration date for Istanbul is May 27th, 2009 at a very early time in morning in the US, e.g. afternoon in Europe. Rest assured that you will be able to read through benchmark results even sooner, given the "flexible" tactics deployed by numerous websites out there.
AMD chose interesting clocks for Istanbul, and we wonder how a quad-core Shanghai at 2.7 GHz will compare against the sexa-core Istanbul at 2.6. For an explanation on quad-core and sexa-core versus quad-core and hexa-core, we'll do a separate article this week. Or you can simply check Wikipedia on the topic of numerical prefixes.
UPDATE, May 26th 2009 23:57 GMT - We were forwarded an e-mail sent from AMD PR to Opteron reviewers, citing that the NDA for sexa-core Opteron is being moved to align with the Turkish Grand Prix, but no date of expiry. Given that Turkish GP takes place on June 7th, we have no idea what's going on at AMD, but the dismal reaction from the media that are now packing bags for Computex.
Regardless of that e-mail from AMD, expect that the first day of Computex, June 2nd - will be occupied with AMD launching Istanbul. It's almost certain. If AMD does launch on Turkish GP, person who made the call to launch the part after Computex should probably reconsider his or her career.
