AMD has announced the availability of a host of new Opteron processor models in both higher-efficiency 68 watt and mainstream 95 watt thermal envelopes.

AMD's new "high efficiency” (HE) Opteron processor models include the 1218 HE, 2218 HE and 8218 HE, all designed at 68 watt maximum thermal design power. The new processors all include AMD's PowerNow technology, which the company said is designed for reduced system level energy consumption, with multiple levels of lower clock speed and voltage states, that AMD claims can reduce processor power consumption by as much as 75 per cent during idle times.
 
The company has also debuted higher-performance AMD Opteron processor models 2220 and 8220, which are now immediately available in the 95 watt maximum thermal design power. AMD also unveiled four other new low-power, single socket processors, models 1210 HE, 1212 HE, 1214 HE and 1216 HE, along with the 1218 HE, which are all designed at 68 watt maximum power.

This latest round of AMD Opteron processors will complement and are designed to allow a seamless upgrade path to AMD's native quad-core processors that are expected to hit the market in mid-2007. AMD was beaten to the quad-core punch by rival and reigning industry leader Intel Corp., which in November debuted its first quad-core processor families, the Quad-Core Xeon 5300 for business and Intel Core 2 Extreme quad-core for gamers.
 
According to AMD, service providers including Dell, Fujitsu Siemens Computers, HP,
IBM and Sun Microsystems plan to incorporate the new AMD Opteron processors into their platforms.