Advanced Micro Devices officially unveils Shanghai today (Nov. 13), its first 45 nm processor server just days ahead of Intel’s formal disclosure of its first 45 nm server chips. The battle for leadership in high-end PC processors comes as analysts project a decline in the overall CPU market in 2009.
The four-core Shanghai proves AMD has a robust 45 nm process and gives it an edge for as much as a year in servers supporting four or more chips. However, Intel will gain a significant advantage with its Nehalem server processors coming late next year that support up to eight dual-threaded cores for similar high-end systems.
Shanghai is essentially a 45 nm shrink of AMD’s delayed quad-core Barcelona design. By contrast, Nehalem chips integrate a memory controller and Intel’s new high-speed Quick Path Interconnect, similar to the architecture of AMD’s Opteron CPUs.
