AMD has demoed its upcoming six-core server processor, code-named Istanbul, claiming that it remains on track for release in the second half of this year.

The demo came hot on the heels of Intel's confirmation that its four-core Nehalem-EP will be released by the end of this quarter, along with that company's recent detailing of its plans for the eight-core Nehalem-EX, scheduled for release late this year.

Intel's own six-core offering, formerly known as Dunnington, shipped last September.

According to AMD's director of business development for server/workstation products, John Fruehe, the demo showed that Istanbul "is everything we had hoped for – and more."

Istanbul will fit in the same socket 1207 that houses AMD's Shanghai Opteron processor, released last November and will match that processor's power and thermal ranges, according to AMD. In the demo, in fact, AMD upgraded a system from Shanghai to Istanbul and "stressed" a four-socket server with all 24 cores running.

The release of Istanbul will be good news for Opteron-server users and OEMs. Just swap out the Chinese city for the Turkish one, and you increase your core count by 50 per cent. ®

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