Solution providers have a new answer for your clients that want to cut costs without sacrificing performance -- AMD's new 45-nm quad-core Opteron processors, previously code-named Shanghai.

The latest member of AMD's processor family delivers up to 35 percent more performance and decreases power consumption by up to 35 percent at idle, says Randy Allen, senior vice president, Computing Solutions Group at AMD in Sunnyvale, Calif. You'll also be able to offer systems based on the newest members of the Opteron family immediately, with OEMs expected to offer more than 25 systems for enterprise and SMB customers between today and the end of this year, he adds.

"In concert with our OEM and solution provider partners, AMD is addressing the need for enterprises to focus on their bottom line while giving them the innovations they need to build for the future. This enhanced AMD Opteron processor represents the most dramatic performance and performance-per-watt increases for AMD products since the introduction of the world's first x86 dual-core processors by AMD nearly four years ago," Allen says. "Simply put, the quad-core AMD Opteron processor is the right technology at the right time."

Ingram Micro will offer many of these solutions from vendor partners such as IBM and Hewlett-Packard. We also will continue to provide you with the tools you need to develop and sell new technologies by working with AMD and our other infrastructure partners."

"Since 2003, IBM has leveraged the capabilities of AMD Opteron processors and Direct Connect Architecture to help satisfy compute-intensive demands of customers across the enterprise and provide them choice," says Alex Yost, vice president of IBM BladeCenter. "IBM is building innovation on top of the energy efficiency and virtualization performance of the new processor to deliver exceptional value to our customers."

Between government regulations, mandates from giant customers such as Wal-Mart and business owners' need to slash costs while staying competitive, the data center is coming under increased scrutiny as a power pig. Federal agencies, for example, must reduce energy consumption by 30 percent by 2015, according to Input. Organizations still need computer solutions, however, and this will drive your green IT sales, the research firm notes.

"Customers can drive down costs through new Shanghai-based HP ProLiant servers that set new levels of power efficiency and performance," says Paul Gottsegen, vice president, marketing, Industry Standard Servers at HP. "HP has experienced unparalleled success over the past four years working with AMD in bringing AMD Opteron processor-based platforms to customers of all sizes. Early results indicate Shanghai is a winner."

Showing prospects how they can save money on power and cooling while simultaneously increasing performance is a powerful message you can deliver, making winners out of you and your clients, too.