It is just six years since AMD out manoeuvred Intel to launch the first dual core processor. Since then we have seen several generations of processors from both companies come and go, processor speeds go back to where they were before dual-core began and quad-core processors now dominate the datacentre. The average AMD Opteron and Intel Xeon server is now several orders of magnitude faster than the mainframes of the 1980's.

But just as the hype and excitement generated by Intel's Nehalem launch starts to die down, AMD has announced another phase in the core-wars. It has brought forward the release of the next generation of Opteron processors, codenamed "Istanbul" to June 2009.

What makes Istanbul important is that it will deliver a six core processor using the same power requirements as the existing family of Opteron processors and any platform capable of running the existing quad core Opteron processors will be able to run Istanbul with no changes.

For the makers of motherboards and systems vendors that is a significant cost saving as they can afford the multi-million pound investment in hardware refresh and re-certification that they have just been forced to undergo in order to support Intel's Nehalem processor.

Another major advantage for AMD in bringing the launch of Istanbul forward is that Intel will not be making the six core version of Nehalem available until at least the end of 2009. This not only gives AMD six months in which to position and sell its technology, especially in the virtualisation and HPC market, but it also means that Intel's lead with Nehalem has been slashed to just two months.

At the same time as announcing the release date of Istanbul, AMD also showed off its new Direct Connect Architecture 2.0 (DCA 2.0)which will advance server performance dramatically. Promising support for 12 cores by 2010 (2 years ahead of Intel, based on recent Intel comments), with a 4 channel integrated memory controller that would allow it to address twice as much memory as today and with 4 HyperTransport links, DCA 2.0 is a massive step up in a short time.

This official name for this group of processors is the AMD Opteron 6000 series and AMD is targeting 2P and 4P servers - arguably the sweet spot not just in terms of rack mounted servers but also in the blade system market. By promising no increase in the power requirements and heat output, AMD is making this very easy for server vendors and ensuring that it is carrying the right message to the datacentre.

The Opteron 6000 processors will use the G34 socket and the "Maranello" platform. Clearly those Ferrari branded laptops are for more than show! The first two processors will be 8-core and 12-core under the "Magny-Cours" codename. Their target market will be those doing large amounts of virtualisation as well as the HPC and database markets.