AMD today launched not only its latest Opteron processors, but the second generation of the 90nm server chip family, adding support for Intel's SSE 3 instruction set and a 1GHz frontside bus.

The new processors are the 252 and the 852, but we note AMD has added a 152 to its price list too. The chips are clocked to 2.6GHz.

The 252 and 852 are pitched at two- and four-way machines, respectively. The new chips also incorporate AMD's PowerNow! power-conservation technology, in a bid to help high-density server users cut their energy bills. It's a move that mirrors Intel's addition of its own SpeedStep technology to Xeon processors last summer.

The 152, 252 and 852 are priced at $637, $851 and $1514, respectively. AMD said it expects the higher end parts to ship "within 30 days" - the 152 won't ship until 30 April.

AMD is already shipping 90nm Opterons - shipments commenced last December - but these are essentially 90nm die-shrinks of the previous generation of Opteron. Today's launch centres on a revised core design.

The chip maker also unveiled today the AMD-8132 HyperTransport tunnel chip which connects to the Opteron's integrated HyperTransport bus controller to add PCI-X 2.0 support to the platform. ®

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