By Frank J. Ohlhorst June 22, 2009

AMD hopes to fuel server upgrades with their latest Opteron CPU, code named Istanbul. Istanbul is designed to be a drop in replacement for previous generation Opteron CPUs and brings six cores and a 50% performance boost to the table. Follow along as we upgrade a server from a four-core Shanghai to a six-core Istanbul and determine if there is any “bull” in AMD’s Istanbul claims. “What if you could just increase performance with a CPU change?” AMD’s answer comes in the form of a Six Core Opteron processor, code-named Istanbul. While both Intel and AMD have offered the ability to upgrade CPUs in the past, other hardware was usually required to gain any significant performance improvement, sometimes necessitating a cooling fan or power supply upgrade as well. Istanbul is different, the CPU has the same power and thermal profile as previous Opterons (such as the four-core Shanghai and four-core Barcelona), which makes upgrading a much simpler endeavor. Those performing Opteron upgrades will not have to change cooling fans, power supplies, motherboards, or anything else for that matter—all that may be needed is a simple BIOS upgrade. Simply put, by just upgrading five servers in a data center, data center managers can eliminate the need to purchase an additional server to meet performance needs. It all comes down to simple math, where one has to consider the cost of the CPUs and the time needed to perform an upgrade to see if the return on investment is worthwhile. Most will find that in this case, it is—thanks to AMD’s straightforward technology and performance boost that reduces the need to upgrade other components.

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