Cloud Computing Technology from AMD 

Cloud service providers interested in leveraging this powerful IT delivery methodology must select underlying technologies that offer a high level of performance, reliability, power efficiency, and cost-effectiveness.

An essential component of any cloud computing environment is servers equipped with processors that deliver a balance of performance, I/O capabilities, low energy consumption, and hardware-assisted virtualization.  AMD Multi-Core Opteron™ processors offer these qualities, along with the value needed to drive a cost effective cloud environment.

Balanced Architecture: The Multi-Core AMD Opteron™ processor is designed to deliver performance that balances power consumption, memory management, I/O, and throughput. This enables the performance and power efficiency needed to help to drive a cost effective cloud computing environment.

Low Energy Consumption: The Multi-Core AMD Opteron processor contains AMD-P technology, a suite of features that can help to significantly reduce energy usage. This technology can help cloud service providers manage their vast virtual server farms while helping to minimize downtime.

• All Multi-Core AMD Opteron processors feature AMD PowerNow!™ technology, which dynamically manages power utilization across processor cores, and AMD CoolCore™ technology, which enables reduced power consumption within individual cores.
• They also feature Dual Dynamic Power Management™, which can enable reduced idle processor power consumption while enabling per-processor power management in multi-socket systems.
• Together, those technologies and others can help enable cutting-edge energy efficiency. That can be a major competitive advantage for cloud service providers, whose data centers typically house large volumes of power-hungry servers.

Hardware-assisted Virtualization Technology: Multi-Core AMD Opteron processors also feature AMD-Virtualization (AMD-V™) technology, hardware extensions designed to improve efficiency and reduce overhead of virtualization software. AMD-V™ enables:

• Virtualization software to operate with optimal efficiency and enables a quick transition between virtual machines.
• Features Rapid Virtualization Indexing (RVI) technology, which offers fast and efficient performance by executing functions typically handled in software within the CPU.
• Fast switching between virtual machines, and its functionality enables running virtual machines to be migrated across AMD Opteron processor generations.

More resources:

Managing the Cloud (PDF, 534kb)

ACP – The Truth about Power Consumption Starts Here (PDF, 95kb)

The Silver Lining: To Build an Effective Cloud Computing Infrastructure, Start With the Right Core Technology (PDF, 110kb)