AMD has officially introduced new 4000-series Opterons aimed at cloud computing and data center markets.  The company claims the new series, based on the Lisbon core, is the first server platform designed with the specific requirements of cloud in mind.

Corporate VP and general manager of AMD’s Server and Embedded Division Patrick Patla stressed that the new series will allow customers to build more cost-efficient server platforms with a high degree of customization.

“Until now, customers wanting to build a dense and power-efficient cloud or hyperscale data center had to shoehorn expensive, higher-end solutions into their computing environment, or they had to choose low-power client-based designs that may not have offered the right level of performance and server functionality,” said Patla.

On the technical side of things, AMD boasts significant power consumption cuts for the 4000 series and claims it has reduced power consumption by as much as 24 percent over the previous generation. Lisbon six- and quad-cores consume as little as 6W per core. AMD has introduced three power efficient EE and HE series six-cores clocked between 1.7GHz and 2.1GHz.

If you really don't care about the Brasilian rainforest or the flooding in China, you can go for some regular parts, clocked between 2.3GHz and 2.9GHz. Even at 2.9GHz, the six-core Opteron 4186 will dissipate 95W, which is not bad.