AMD (Advanced Micro Devices) has introduced its Gen-Next stream processor -- FireStream 9250 -- at the International Supercomputing Conference. The company claims FireStream 9250 breaks the one teraflop barrier for single precision performance.

FireStream 9250 occupies a single PCI slot and boasts a power consumption of less than 150 Watts to deliver an unprecedented eight gigaflops per Watt performance. Building on the capabilities of its predecessor, the FireStream 9170, FireStream 9250 includes a second-generation double-precision floating point hardware implementation that delivers over 200 gigaflops, claims AMD.The FireStream 9250's compact size makes it ideal for small 1U servers as well as most desktop systems, workstations, and larger servers. The streamprocessor features 1GB of GDDR3 memory, enabling developers handle large, complex problems. Crucial workloads such as financial analysis or seismic processing can now be done faster, according to AMD.

To enable development of its FireStream family of processors, AMD has designed the Stream SDK for developers to create accelerated applications for FireStream, FireGL, and ATI Radeon GPUs. The company is also offering published interfaces for its high-level language API, intermediate language, and instruction set architecture.

AMD plans to deliver FireStream 9250 and the supporting SDK in the third quarter of this year for $999. FireStream 9170 is currently available for purchase, and is priced at $1,999.