Faster server processors unveiled ahead of Intel's Developer Forum

AMD has unveiled three new models of its Opteron processor on the eve of Intel's Developer Forum tradeshow.

The dual-core 185, 285 and 885 processors all run at speeds of 2.6GHz and are designed for one-way, two-way and eight-way servers respectively.

The 185 is slated for availability within the next 30 days. AMD did not provide projected shipping dates for the 285 and 885.

The unveiling comes the day before AMD's main competitor is scheduled to kick off its Intel Developer Forum conference in San Francisco where the chipmaker is expected to highlight a new quad-core Xeon processor codenamed Clovertown.

AMD touted the conservative power consumption of its new server processors, which will limit the cooling needs for data centres.

The chipmaker also boasted its "native dual-core" technology, where the two processor cores each have access to a dedicated frontside bus that allows them to operate independently. The frontside bus connects the processor with the main memory.

The first generation of Intel's dual-core processors featured shared frontside buses, which limits performance gains.