AMD launched today its Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor, which has four processor cores on a silicon chip that also includes a memory controller hub and high-speed HyperTransport links.

That’s an improvement over Intel's quad-core processors that have two dual-core silicon chips inside a multi-chip package that does not include the memory controller.

But AMD said that its Quad-Core AMD Opteron  integrates also other innovations such as  energy efficiency with a 50 percent increase in integer and floating-point performance, enhanced virtualization performance, and investment protection via a customer-centric approach enabling non-disruptive transitions from dual- to quad-core within the same power and thermal envelopes to help keep infrastructure costs down.

Although, the new chips are designed to operate within the same thermal envelopes as current generation of Opteron processors, but AMD estimates that the new ones can provide a performance increase up to 70 percent on certain database applications and up to 40 percent on certain floating point applications, with subsequent higher frequency processors expected to significantly add to this performance advantage.

“Today marks one of the great milestones in microprocessor achievement as AMD again raises expectations for industry-standard computing,” said Hector Ruiz, chairman and chief executive officer, AMD. “We’ve worked closely with our customers and partners to design a new generation of processing solutions embodied by today’s Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor – a four-way winner in performance, energy efficiency, virtualization and investment protection. Early customer response has been extremely positive.”

AMD said that nine versions of the Quad-Core Opteron will be available from Monday and all are manufactured using a 65-nanometer process. These are the first server chips from the company made using this technology.

The company also introduced the Average CPU Power (ACP) metric, which represents processor power usage, including cores, integrated memory controller, and HyperTransport technology links, while running a suite of typical and relevant commercially useful high utilization workloads to be more indicative of the power consumption that end-users can expect.

Meanwhile, Intel issued a statement announcing that was raising its quarterly sales forecast. According to the company, Intel’s sales in the third-quarter will increase to $9.4 billion to $9.8 billion, compared with its earlier outlook of $9.0 billion to $9.6 billion.

Intel also said that the gross margin percentage for the third quarter is expected to be in the upper half of the previous range of 52 percent plus or minus a couple of points

Previously, Intel claimed that its quad-core CPUs for desktops and servers have surpassed the barrier of 1 million units sold. Built using the 65nm technology, Intel’s quad-core processors have been introduced in November last year, confirming Intel’s promise from September 2006 that in about 6 months they’ll sell 1 million quads before AMD launches any competitor.