Start-up could kick Opteron into overdrive | The Register

Start-up could kick Opteron into overdrive | The Register

AMD's decision to open Hypertransport could end up being a key factor in Opteron's future success. Intel looks set to compete better with AMD later this year when it releases a revamped line of Xeon processors. AMD, however, can now turn to third parties such as DRC for performance boosts unavailable with Intel's chip line.

DRC appears to be making the most of its AMD ties by sliding right into Opteron sockets. That means that customers can outfit an Opteron motherboard with any combination of Opteron chips and DRC modules. Illuminata's Haff sees the DRC implementation as one way of overcoming past aversions to accelerators.

"It is true that one of the issues around PCI-based FPGA products and really anything specialized is that by the time you transfer the calculation over the special purpose board, you have often lost much of the benefit you had," Haff said. "So, putting the product within the CPU fabric certainly does help address this particular problem."