AMD keeps Barcelona specs under wraps

Some of the first servers based on Advanced Micro Devices' (AMD's) upcoming Barcelona quad-core chip are on display at Computex, but details of the chips are being kept tightly under wraps.

Supermicro Computer, Tyan Computer, and Uniwide Technologies are all showing Barcelona systems this week in Taipei, but the companies and AMD are not revealing details about what's inside.

At Supermicro's booth, the company had a two-way Barcelona server, which was housed inside a nondescript beige box, running a full-screen video clip. The demonstration was not connected to a keyboard or mouse -- eliminating the chance a visitor might try to view details of its configuration -- and was described simply as "Barcelona solution."

A Supermicro executive manning the company's booth said most of the interest in the server seemed to come from Intel employees, eager for a glimpse of the chip AMD is counting on to revive its flagging fortunes in the server market.

Three Barcelona servers are on display at AMD's booth, but little information was available on the chips themselves. Uniwide's Barcelona server is a single-processor rack server with room for 32GB of DDR2 (double data rate 2) memory and a 300-watt power supply.

Tyan's Barcelona server was a two-processor system that can hold 64GB of DDR2 memory and uses a 600-watt power supply.

The Barcelona servers at Computex are all running engineering samples of the chip that were provided to help server makers build their systems. AMD declined to offer detailed specifications, but said the chips are on track to ship during the third quarter.