Intel, AMD Spar Over Server Chip Speeds

AMD is planning to go on the offensive with a new marketing push disputing Intel's claims of a lead in processor performance. AMD's newest Opteron, available at speeds of 3GHz, is said to be up to 15.5 percent faster than a comparable Xeon chip.

Current Opteron models offer up to 2.8GHz of computing power, and AMD says its rival's claims are based on benchmarks of tests that have since been revised because they didn't accurately represent real-world conditions.

Full-page ads in several major newspapers pointed to a 15.5 percent advantage to the Opteron in what is called floating-point calculations, and a 2.5 percent lead in integer tasks.

"Saying you're the 'world's best processor' is one thing," the ad reads. "Actually being the 'world's best processor is another." Both chips are dual-core, meaning they contain nearly the same circuitry as two processors separately.

Intel is countering AMD by noting the new Opteron processor at this point is not even available to consumers, while the Intel chips referenced in the ad are currently available. AMD says its processor has already shipped to manufacturers and should be available in systems later this month.

Also, Intel already offers a quad-core Xeon processor, whereas a quad-core Opteron, code-named "Barcelona," is not expected to be available until the middle of the year.