Advanced Micro Devices’ new embedded Opteron program has a new customer: storage vendor Network Appliance. NetApp has selected Opteron as the processor for an upcoming storage server, NetApp CEO Dan Warmenhoven says.
NetApp currently uses chips from Intel for much of its product line, but the company has decided to go with AMD’s 64-bit processor for its next high-end machine because of technical reasons, Warmenhoven says.
“We’ll use AMD for one box,” he says. “We need the 64-bit architecture and Intel couldn’t get there in time. But I see no reason to say that sets a precedent for what we do next.”
Warmenhoven did not provide any further details on the new server, but a company spokeswoman says the company has no plans to ship Opteron-based servers during 2005.
Whatever the specifics of the forthcoming Opteron-based product, the design win will give a boost to AMD’s embedded Opteron program, which the company unveiled just three months ago. Unlike general-purpose systems, which can be configured for a wide variety of applications, embedded computers are designed to perform a limited number of predefined tasks.
