As Intel prepares to launch its Woodcrest chip for servers in June, rival Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) has purchased billboard ads that claim its Opteron chip will reduce electricity costs in data centers.AMD, of Sunnyvale, Calif., posted a “ticker” display Tuesday on billboards in Times Square in New York City and along Route 101 in California’s Silicon Valley.The display shows a theoretical electric bill representing the worldwide cost incurred by companies running servers with Intel’s Xeon chips instead of AMD’s Opteron chips, said Brent Kerby, AMD’s product marketing manager for Opteron.Then on Wednesday, Sun Microsystems launched an effort to taunt competitors Hewlett-Packard and IBM for using fans to cool their servers, instead of using more efficient chips like Sun’s UltraSPARC T1. Many chip manufacturers compete today based on power efficiency instead of pure speed, boasting of high performance per watt.Some of those companies are working together to share information about power-efficient processing, through an industry group called The Green Grid. Founded in April by AMD, Egenera, HP, IBM, Rackable Systems and Sun, the group offers a forum for data center managers to share techniques for reducing power and cooling costs. On Wednesday, three more companies joined the effort: Advanced Power and Cooling, Dell and VMware. More information can be found online. By some measures, the strategy is effective. AMD says that market results back up these claims, as Intel lost market share with its Xeon chip for servers, reporting first-quarter net income of US$1.3 billion, a 38 percent decline over the previous year.At the same time, AMD said its Opteron chip for servers gained market share in the worldwide demand for x86 server processors, rising from 16.4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2005 to 22.1 percent in the first quarter of 2006.The Woodcrest chip will make up the difference, using a new Core microarchitecture and 65-nanometer, dual-core design to improve on Xeon’s performance, said Intel Chief Executive Officer Paul Otellini in his remarks at the company’s spring analyst forum last Thursday.Customers are also beginning to pay attention, analysts say.“Power and cooling concerns are a major point in the industry right now, with the increased power of chips and increased server density, with blades and high-density computing,” said Jed Scaramella, an analyst with IDC. “Power is mounting, and cooling becomes an important factor. Customers are starting to look at this.” -Ben Ames, IDG News ServiceCheck out our CIO News Alerts and Tech Informer pages for more updated news coverage. Related content BrandPost Are tech layoffs inevitable, or can your company avoid them? Despite tech industry layoffs, one ITSM company remains committed to growth and expansion of internal teams. The company’s successful endeavor is largely credited to one difference between TOPdesk and other tech organizations. By TOPdesk Mar 30, 2023 6 mins IT Leadership Analysis CIOs must evolve to stave off existential threat to their role With LOB leaders learning tech faster than CIOs gain business-savvy, IT leaders must strengthen advisory skills, build relationships, and embrace strategic transformation before losing out to business counterparts. By Yashvendra Singh Mar 30, 2023 10 mins Roles Opinion 5 ways AI will transform CRM Recent announcements by Microsoft and Salesforce on how they’re ramping up integration of AI tools into their software offerings mark the start of a revolution in the CRM marketplace. By Martin De Saulles Mar 30, 2023 4 mins Channel Sales CRM Systems Artificial Intelligence Interview From CIO to CX SVP, Cisco’s Jacqueline Guichelaar takes a road less travelled By David Binning Mar 29, 2023 7 mins Careers IT Leadership Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe