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AMD has expanded its friends and family program in an obvious way by allowing partners to plug their CPUs, accelerators and other components directly into Opteron processor sockets. AMD's unveiling today of Torrenza 2 - aka the Torrenza Innovation Socket - builds on an existing deal that let third parties tap into the company's Hypertransport technology. Now, AMD has agreed to open up the entire Opteron socket specifications to preferred partners willing to pay a licensing fee. As a result, customers could start seeing some odd but fantastic motherboards with, for example, a mix of Opteron and Cell chips or even an UltraSPARC T1/Opteron combo.
The Torrenza brand may sound silly, but the concept behind it is sound. AMD has proved more willing than Intel to reveal its hardware IP to partners, and, in return, partners have shown great interest in flaunting their wares via Hypertransport. Thus far, Intel has been reluctant to free up its Northbridge in a similar manner or to promise a more open architecture when it moves to Opteron copy chips outfitted with its CSI technology. The market for add-on components for Opteron chips is young but promising. Companies such as Pathscale lauched their InfiniPath HTX Adapter for AMD's architecture first and then followed with Intel gear that plugs into PCI Express. DRC and XtremeData have taken the process one step further with FPGAs that already plug directly into Opteron sockets. The companies, however, had to reverse engineer AMD's design.
Now companies such as Sun, IBM, Cray and Fujitsu have agreed to pay for an Opteron socket license.
The Torrenza brand may sound silly, but the concept behind it is sound. AMD has proved more willing than Intel to reveal its hardware IP to partners, and, in return, partners have shown great interest in flaunting their wares via Hypertransport. Thus far, Intel has been reluctant to free up its Northbridge in a similar manner or to promise a more open architecture when it moves to Opteron copy chips outfitted with its CSI technology. The market for add-on components for Opteron chips is young but promising. Companies such as Pathscale lauched their InfiniPath HTX Adapter for AMD's architecture first and then followed with Intel gear that plugs into PCI Express. DRC and XtremeData have taken the process one step further with FPGAs that already plug directly into Opteron sockets. The companies, however, had to reverse engineer AMD's design.
Now companies such as Sun, IBM, Cray and Fujitsu have agreed to pay for an Opteron socket license.
Intels Response
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Everyone in the server world has been wondering if Intel planned a response to AMD's opening of its Opteron socket specifications. Well, The Register can reveal that Intel does indeed have a counterattack in store, and it will arrive in part at next week's Intel Developer Forum.
Multiple sources have confirmed that Intel, for the first time, will open up its chip architecture to partners. One element of the companies agenda centers around releasing extensions for PCI Express and other buses that will allow other companies to develop co-processors for Xeon-based motherboards. In addition, Intel has been trying to woo partners to build co-processors for its upcoming Common System Interface (CSI).
"Intel has been quite openly talking to many people," said one source.
Multiple sources have confirmed that Intel, for the first time, will open up its chip architecture to partners. One element of the companies agenda centers around releasing extensions for PCI Express and other buses that will allow other companies to develop co-processors for Xeon-based motherboards. In addition, Intel has been trying to woo partners to build co-processors for its upcoming Common System Interface (CSI).
"Intel has been quite openly talking to many people," said one source.