They were showcasing two servers built with Sledgehammer processors (Opteron) and two workstations connected to them built on ClawHammer processors. They used 64bit Windows Server OS version for both and were running IIS and Terminal Server software. On the client systems they were running 64bit Internet Explorer. Also AMD demonstrated how well these systems coped with 32bit applications.

According to AMD officials, ClawHammer DP and SledgeHammer processors will use the same Socket 900+ and feature the same amount of HyperTransport (HT) channels: 3. As you remember, SledgeHammer is planned to come out in Q1 2003, and ClawHammer – in Q4 2002.

Also AMD claims that with the new solutions it will be much easier to build 4-way systems, as no chipset support will be required: you will only need to have extra HyperTransport channels laid out.

They also mentioned a new 32bit AMD processor on Thoroughbred core. AMD representative didn’t go deep into details, but mentioned that this CPU will work faster than Palomino with the same core clock frequency due to some changes in the processor core (I sincerely doubt this statement). The desktop version of this processor has already undergone all the tests and the launching date depends only on the company’s marketing department now.