HP has become the first major vendor to offer a four-processor server based on Advanced Micro Devices's 64-bit Opteron chip.

On Monday, the company plans to announce the ProLiant DL585, a 4U Opteron-powered sister product to its Xeon-based DL580.

The new server will have two more PCI-X slots than the 580, and will support up to 64G bytes of memory - 32G bytes more than the DL580, according to HP Group Manager for ProLiant Systems Steve Cumings.

It will also be less expensive than the Xeon system. An entry level two-processor configuration of the DL585 built with AMD's fastest-performing 2.2 GHz Opteron 848 processors will cost $11,999, Cumings said. A similar configuration of the DL580, based on Intel's fastest processor - the 2.8 GHz Xeon MP - will list for $15,798, he said.

Because of differences between Opteron and Xeon, however, the DL585 will not have the memory protection features of the Xeon system. "Because of the Opteron architecture, you have the memory controller on the processor itself, so it's not actually possible to deliver Hot-Plug memory in the way we've done it with the Intel processors," Cumings said.

The DL580's Hot-Plug feature lets the system replace a failed memory unit on the server, Cumings said.

High-performance computer users have embraced dual-processor Opteron systems, using them as inexpensive 64-bit components in large computing clusters, but HP's four-way system may now extend Opteron's appeal into the enterprise, according to Mark Melenovsky, an analyst with industry research firm IDC.

Four-way systems on the market today are typically designed for enterprise users running packaged applications, who have not yet embraced the Opteron processor, Melenovsky said. "It's going to be an interesting battleground for AMD and for Opteron against Intel," he said. "Users are strongly wedded to Intel and the Intel brand."

Opteron systems accounted for only about 800 of the 228,000 four-way x86 servers that shipped in 2003, Melenovsky said. And while IDC has not estimated how many four-way Opteron systems will ship in the year ahead, it expects the total x86 four-way market to grow to 245,000 units in 2004, fuelled in part by the new HP system, as well as a planned four-way Opteron server from Sun, which is expected by the end of June.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.