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In one of the Intel Developer Forums (IDF) last year, Pat Gelsinger, senior vice president and general manager, Digital Enterprise Group, Intel, demonstrated an eighty-core prototype processor from Intel. He took a dig at competition and said they had lots of catching up to do. Interestingly, in the vicinity of the IDF event, the companys archrival, AMD, put up a signboard statingtowards futurepointing to AMD, and another arrow saying way to IDF. While it was a figment of creativity, it in a way shows the sign of things. Intel is, definitely, the master of processors, but its got some serious competition from AMD. Though Intel has brushed aside AMD, the very fact that its speaking about competition in its technology forums indicate that AMD has emerged as a rival, and it has garnered a customer base, mainly on the server and high-end computing space.

Battle Lines Drawn
Experts say that processor designs have witnessed several inflection points, and perhaps the most significant of them was the introduction of the x86 processors, which brought in the 32-bit architecture to mainstream computing, and sustained for almost a decade. In 2003, AMD launched its 64 architecture and broke the decade-long dominance of 32-bit processors. Soon after this, in 2005, first dual core processors from AMD sowed the seeds of the multi-core era and started the 64-bit market movement.

Intel, over the years, has been the visible face in the chip industry. However, AMD made silent strides in high-end computing, with verticals like education, research, and segments like data centers and HPC buying AMDs Opteron server chips. Here comes the fundamental difference between AMD and Intel. Intel is present in all the computing segmentsdesktop, notebook and servers, while AMD initially created successful proof points on the server side and later on the desktop and gaming front. Intel, from the beginning, is more of an end-to-end player, and given its financial and marketing muscle, Intel continues to dominate the scheme of things.

Performance Per Watt
On the enterprise server side, the x86 is the biggest slice of the market and here is where the action gets aggressive between Intel and AMD. For instance, for the past three years, AMD has been adopting a new matrix of performance, termed as performance-per-watt. AMD says it came out with this term and later Intel followed. According to Vamsi Krishna, senior technical manager, AMD India, "Opteron processors help power a cooler data center by offering increased server performance without replacing existing cooling and energy envelopes. AMD also advocated a way in standardizing a performance-per-watt by means of the amount of energy consumed per unit of computational power". To that end, AMD Opteron processors also came up with features like PowerNow, aimed at reducing the amount of power required to perform the same tasks.

The performance per watt is indeed a clever invention by AMD. Having gone to the extent of claiming that the Moores Law is no longer valid, AMD, in the last few years, mainly during 2003-04, was not able to cope with Intel in terms of MHz. Intel came out with, as per the Moores Law, higher clock speed processors, and most of the industry went by processor speed benchmarks as the key criterion in determining the efficacy of the processor. But, as servers increased, so did power and heat generated by the processors. And consumers started measuring other aspects of the processors like its energy efficiency, power consumed, and multi-tasking among others. So, in a way, AMD needs to be credited for busting the MHz myth.

The performance-per-watt assumed bigger proportions in 2005, when AMD openly challenged Intel. Called the Dual Core Duel, the original challenge issued to Intel was that the power consumption was the key consideration in processors. AMD averred that mainstream dual-core AMD Opteron processors at 95 watts consume far less power than the competitions dual-core x86 server processors. This resulted in 200% better performance-per-watt than the competition. Even greater performance-per-watt can be achieved with lower-power dual-core AMD Opteron processors that are available in 55 watt offerings, as per an AMD statement. To counter AMDs claims, Intel also jumped into the performance-per-watt mantra, and launched its Xeon ranges in 2005.

While AMD overtook Intel in launching dual core Opteron, on the quad-core front, Intel became the first mover. In November 2006, Intel launched the industrys first multi-core processorsXeon 5300, and Core 2 Extreme Quad. Intels president and CEO Paul Otellini remarked at the launch that the capabilities of quad-core microprocessors would bring new possibilities for science, entertainment, and enterprise computing.

Taking a closer look at Intels Quads, the company sources said that the 5300 Quads enable higher server virtualization than any other two-processor, standard, high-volume server platform. The new processors, as per Intel, deliver up to 50% faster performance within the same thermal envelope and at the same cost as the previous generation dual-core Intel Xeon processor 5100 series. Intel now offers more than twenty server and desktop quad-cores from fifty Watts and up to 3GHz. Building on the advantages of its earlier quad-core Xeon 5300 series, Intel last month came out with another new quad-core Xeon processor 7300 series for multi processor (MP) servers. Says R Ravichandran, director (sales), Intel South Asia: "Intel Xeon-based multi-processor servers are the backbone of the enterprise. We are delivering new levels of performance and performance- per-watt, and driving the Intel Core micro architecture into such innovative systems as four-socket, 16-core blades that use less energy than our older models. Its simply amazing."

AMD has been adopting a new matrix of performance, termed as performance-per-watt. AMD says it came out with this term and later Intel followed

Intel has a clear lead over AMDs first Quad, codenamed Barcelona, launched recently. But AMD says that Barcelona is a true Quad and the first true native x86 quad-core server and workstation processor. Says Vamsi Krishna: "Barcelona is the most advanced x86 processor at compelling price points that will enable enterprises to maximize their IT investments. The Barcelona processor has been engineered for unparalleled performance and performance-per-watt." AMD is bullish about Barcelona adoption by enterprises, and its next quarter results will definitely tell to what extent has Barcelona helped AMD to tide over the financial pressures it has been facing in the recent times.

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