Re: 1.5 times the horsepower, 1/3 the power use, 1/4 the size, 1/2 the cost. Not sure how these numbers will hold up, but if they do Dell in particular is going to be feeling a world of pain.
Nice numbers, but keep in mind that it's a particularly worst case benchmark against a Dell server which is about to be refreshed by one that offers up to a 60% performance improvement in just a couple more months (Paxville vs. Potomac). Enterprises care far more about TPC-C than they do about SPECfp, except that Sun can't quite brag about a lead in that benchmark. I'm thinking a 4-socket Paxville ought to even score comparably to a 4-socket Opteron in this benchmark(let alone 2S).
The power, size, and cost comparisons look good by virtue of comparing a 2-socket Opteron system against a 4-socket Xeon MP system. Obviously, the former is going to dissipate less power and cost less money. Intel is still way behind in the MP space, but Paxville will help.
The roadmap going forward is a little shaky, with a netburst based Tulsa in H2 2006 and rumors of Whitefield slipping to late '07. I can see AMD gaining in this market, depending on how they execute. They certainly look a lot better here than they do in the DP space with Dempsey and Woodcrest on the wings.
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