AMD introduces the Quad-Core AMD Opteron™ processor, the world’s most advanced x86 processor ever designed and manufactured and the first native x86 quad-core microprocessor. Designed from inception for the most demanding datacenters, Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor-based servers from global OEMs and system builders can deliver breakthrough capabilities to customers in a time of dramatically escalating emphasis on performance-per-watt.Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors with AMD’s revolutionary Direct Connect Architecture introduce innovations that go beyond four x86 processing cores on a single die of silicon. Critical considerations for today’s demanding business requirements inspired interrelated Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor innovations: energy efficiency, enhanced virtualization performance, and investment protection via a customer-centric approach of enabling a non-disruptive transition from dual- to quad-core within the same power and thermal envelopes to keep infrastructure costs down.