AMD threatened a coupled of weeks back to crank its dual-core Opteron up to 3GHz. This week, the company delivered on that threat.

AMD has officially released the Opteron Model 2222 and 8222 SE chips – the highest performing and most expensive versions of the Opteron server chip family. We say "officially" because AMD did brag about the 3GHzness of the chips earlier this month and started handing partners product. Now, AMD has agreed to share pricing for the chips with a wider audience.

The Model 2222 SE chip, aimed at dual-socket systems, costs $873 in volume. That's a fair chunk of change more than the $698 2220 SE, which clocks in at 2.8GHz.

The 8222 SE chip, which fits in four-socket boxes, starts at – hold your breath - $2,149 in volume. The previous 8220 SE costs $1,514 in volume.

Along with releasing pricing for the new, speedy chips, AMD dished out a smidgen of news around its upcoming, four-core Barcelona chip. The nasty little chip should beat out Intel's Xeon processor by 50 per cent on floating point-heavy software, according to AMD. Previously, AMD has only been bold enough to claim a 40 per cent performance lead.

Barcelona has become more important than ever, following AMD's recent financial run. The company announced a $600m loss in its last quarter and saw processor sales drop by close to 40 per cent. ®

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