As chip maker Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) prepares to launch its new 64-bit Opteron processors Tuesday, a host of software and hardware vendors are joining the bandwagon to show off their related products to enterprise buyers.

Offerings from AMD partners including SuSE Linux and chip set vendor Nvidia, as well as software from IBM and Oracle, will share the stage as companies try to offer compelling reasons for budget-strapped IT departments to buy into the new Opteron 64-bit platform.

SuSELinux is apparently the first major enterprise server operating system to be ready for the new CPUs with its release this week of SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 8 for AMD64, Powered by UnitedLinux. The Nuremberg, Germany-based company has been working with Opteron since early 2000 and created a backward-compatible operating system that also allows businesses to run existing 32-bit applications as they move to 64-bit software in the future.

SuSEbuilt the new operating system out of the same code as other SuSE enterprise operating system products for Intel Corp. Itanium and x86 processors, IBM zSeries mainframes and iSeries and pSeries servers, said Markus Rex, SuSE's vice president of development. That will make it easier for independent software vendors to build applications for all six platforms in one swoop, he said.

"It's really a competitive advantage for us," Rex said. "We worked with AMD, and we looked at their specifications and talked to their hardware designers to make sure that Linux would run well."

Early in the process, AMD sent SuSE one of the first Opteron chips; SuSE had Linux running on it in 64-bit mode in just three days, a remarkably short time in the typical development process, Rex said.

Linux vendor Red Hat, inRaleigh, N.C., won't have its Opteron-supported operating system ready until the fall, and Microsoft's Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 products for Opteron won't be ready until mid-year.

IBM said it will have an Opteron version of its DB2 Universal Database for Linux ready this summer. Oracle is still working on its Oracle9i Database on Opteron product, which is set for release later this year.

Santa Clara, Calif.-based Nvidia's new Opteron-inspired nForce3 Pro motherboard chip set is the company's first move into the professional workstation and 64-bit markets, said product manager Michael Lim.