by Michael Feldman, HPCwire Editor
Although 2010 still has a few months left to go, the competition in the x86 server processor arena for 2011 is already setting up to be a knock-down, drag-out fight. Both AMD and Intel are introducing new high-end server chips with revamped microarchitectures next year, and, at the same time, upping the core counts over their previous generation products. At a time AMD when is looking to make up lost market share, Intel is hoping to expand its dominance in the x86 server market.

This week at the Intel Developer Forum (IDF) extravaganza in San Francisco, Intel had the opportunity to provide some more tidbits about its next generation, Sandy Bridge server processors, but chose to concentrate mostly on the client-side products and applications. This was a practical choice, given that the chip maker is planning to launch two of its most interesting products later this year: the new “Tunnel Creek,” Atom E600 SoC processors for embedded apps and the first “Sandy Bridge” processors with integrated graphics for PCs.

Sandy Bridge, which represents the 32nm-based microarchitecture upgrade from Nehalem, will end up in Xeon server parts as well, but these chips are not expected to ship until well into 2011. They’ll be meeting AMD’s 32nm “Interlagos” Opteron CPUs in roughly the same timeframe.

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