MSI™(Taiwan: 2377.TW) today unveils its latest dual server platforms for both tower and rack-mount type server solutions, capable of supporting the new dual 64bit AMD™ (NYSE: AMD) Opteron™ Processors. MSI is one of the first to market this exciting new product en par with AMD's launch of its latest server processor, the AMD Opteron™, formerly code-named “SledgeHammer”.

The K8D Master (MS-9131) is ideal for general high-performance servers for web and e-business applications in small to medium sized businesses. Other than providing extreme performance and solid reliability, the K8D Master delivers maximized system bus, memory, and I/O bandwidth to enhance performance, scalability, and end-user productivity while providing a smooth transition to the next-generation server technologies.

Systems based on the K8D Master simplify IT transition strategies by supporting simultaneous 32-bit and 64-bit computing. By utilizing dual AMD Opteron™ processors and designed to be to completely backwards compatible, the K8D Master provides maximum flexibility. Customers can migrate to 64-bit computing as their needs evolve while maintaining system integrity with their current 32-bit applications.

Paired with Dual Opteron Processors, the K8D Master is well suited for applications where data protection and server availability is critical. The K8D Master is capable of reducing I/O bottlenecks, increase system bandwidth and reduce memory latency by enabling the AMD Opteron™ processor with an integrated memory controller.

The K8D Master provides investment protection, by investing in MSI’s new K8D Master platform and AMD Opteron™ processors, not only do you get a stable, high performance server platform suitable for either a tower or rack-mount server, but a simplified IT investment plan by allowing incremental growth into 64-bit computing without sacrificing investment in existing hardware, software and training.

The K8D Master is an 8-layer printed-circuit design, enabling precise isolation of signal and circuits based on different frequencies, thus highly improved stability of server products. With the support of remote server management features, the K8D Master incorporates built-in 64-bit Dual Gigabit Ethernet, 3 PCI-X slots, 2 32-bit PCI slots, onboard ATI Rage XL graphics (8MB) and 6 slots of DDR333 DIMMs supporting up to 12GB memory.

The rackmount version of the K8D Master is a rack-mount centric server mainboard, build in with one PCI-X slot, and one propriatary Mini PCI connector. By adding Mini-PCI to the platform the K8D Master rackmount version is capable of additional expandability and flexiblity such as SCSI, Firewire and Serial-ATA.

During the AMD Opteron™ Launch Event, MSI also announces the µStar® Server Managenent,µStar® Server Managenent including MMS (MSI Server Management Suite), iConsole (MSI Server Management Software) that can be used to remote control the Server and Hardware Monitoring functions.

With these new software features integrated in MSI’s highly reliable hardware products, it is no doubt that the MSI server products will perform with outstanding results among the new generation of server products.

Source: MSI