Dell Opteron servers coming your way
Dell Computer today released its financial performance
report for the quarter. But despite all the numbers, Dell has announced a major
milestone in the history of the company: Dell will now start to offer AMD-based
servers. In
Dell's press release:
In the enterprise, we will launch new ninth generation
servers featuring Intel's Woodcrest microprocessors. Dell will also introduce
new AMD Opteron processors in our multi-processor servers by the end of the
year offering a great new technology to our customers at the high-end of our
server line.
Dell, up until today, had been famous for supporting Intel processors
exclusively. Many have said that Dell holds an exclusive relationship in
exchange for price cuts and marketing dollars. Dell founder Michael Dell,
has been mainly vague about Dell's support for AMD processors, never giving a
clear direction.
Today marks a major milestone for Dell for and the industry in general. AMD is
also enthusiastic about Dell's decision to offer AMD processors in its systems.
"We welcome Dell, and Dell customers, to the world of AMD64," said
Marty Seyer, senior vice president for AMD's Commercial Business team.
Previously, DailyTech reported that Dell had acquired gaming computer company Alienware, which
produced both AMD and Intel systems. Michael Dell was questioned after the
Alienware purchase, on whether or not Dell would start shipping AMD systems.
Dell however, continued to be vague.
Today's announcement that Dell would be using AMD's Opteron processors in its
servers marks a new significant chapter for Dell. Many of Dell's customers had
been repeatedly asking the Round Rock computer company to start using AMD
processors because of their superior performance and power efficiency.
Earlier this year, Intel demonstrated that
its upcoming Woodcrest processor was able to outperform AMD's
Opteron processors in power efficiency. Dell will also be announcing
servers based on Woodcrest at the same time as the Opteron servers. Some are saying
that Dell's almost too-quiet announcement about using Opteron servers could be linked to AMD's anti-trust case against Intel. The chip giant is currently facing a
court battle with AMD over fair competition and market monopoly. Other analysts speculate Dell’s decision may
have more to do with establishing a relationship for the upcoming K8L quad-core
architecture.
Despite some what may or may not be true about Dell's announcement, it's clear
that this has been a long time coming for the giant computer company. Dell
earlier this year repeatedly said that it will listen to its customers -- and
it has.
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