At the recent analyst event in Austin I met with AMD to discuss its plans for the server market in general and for its new ‘Magny Cours’ chips in particular. During the meeting we had a number of discussion with server vendors – ‘OEMs’ from an AMD perspective – who talked about how they were using the new components and what it was like to do business as a partner. Given all of the publicity surrounding endorsement of Intel’s new Nehalem EX chips, I thought it would also be interesting to see how AMD’s products are going to be positioned by its server partners. I’m publishing three papers to talk about the suppliers we heard from. In particular:
- HP in incorporating AMD processors in its Proliant servers
- Dell’s DCS in using AMD chips in Hyperscale HPC and Cloud Computing custom designs
- Acer in using AMD processors to build out from its PC success into the server business
Overall they gave a very positive endorsement, which leads me to believe that AMD will reverse its declining share following Intel’s Nehalem launch in April 2009. Each of these suppliers offers a different approach for AMD. In particular:
- HP has fully tested and certified AMD products in the past, is its biggest customer, will have the broadest set of announced 4000 and 6000 servers at launch and thinks AMD will become the ‘power performance’ leader
- Dell’s DCS will continue to use AMD products, thinks getting rid of 2 socket chips will help remove complexity, enjoys a positive working relationship with the company and thinks it will help with the ‘the number of threads, per Watt, per dollar’ problems his customers have
- Acer is using AMD chips in its new push into the server market, complementing the Intel products it launched at the end of 2009, will use a flexible chassis, focus more on entry level products, will build an exclusively indirect business and help AMD prove its ‘4 socket at a 2 socket price’ strategy
I believe that IBM – absent at launch – will certainly add its own AMD servers later in the year, but that these will take longer, due to the company’s advanced integration design activities. In 2010 it is no longer a case of one chip vendor taking out a massive lead on the other, although AMD’s concentration on simplification (‘democratising the 4 socket market’) and power/performance/price will secure its position within all server vendor portfolios.