AMD has announced the shipments of the x86 “Bulldozer” architecture... unfortunately for the masses, it is the Opteron server based processors and not the Zambezi (FX Series) desktop processors.
AMD announced that the initial production of the world’s first 16-core x86 processor, codenamed “Interlagos” (Opteron Series) began in August, with shipments now underway to customers (OEM customers). The Opteron is compatible with existing AMD Opteron 6100 Series platforms and will be available to partner systems by Q4 this year. The Opteron processors are built on 32nm process technology, utilizing either 8, 12, or 16 cores (model dependent), quad-channel DDR3 memory controller, up to 16MB of L3 cache, and four HyperTransport links.
“This is a monumental moment for the industry as this first ‘Bulldozer’ core represents the beginning of unprecedented performance scaling for x86 CPUs,” said Rick Bergman, senior vice president and general manager, AMD Products Group. "The flexible new ‘Bulldozer’ architecture will give Web and datacenter customers the scalability they need to handle emerging cloud and virtualization workloads.”
Read more at AMD's Server Platforms
Exactly my thoughts on the matter. I'm guessing the FX chips will be the last out of the box in this lineup of bulldozer chips. Next in line will be the desktop cpu's followed by the enthusiast FX range. All though i'm wondering if a motherboard manufacturer could build a board for gaming rigs using these opterons, like EVGA did with the intel x58 classified board. Could you imagine 2 or 4 16 core opterons running quadfire 6990's. Droooooool!
Perhaps my next VM server could be one of these
Why dont you ?, - just buy a two socket G34 machine w two 16core Magnycours AMD Opterons and some 128 GB RAM and run some nice apps and tell us of it beats the Intel Xeon ? I guess it will do ....