The London Stock Exchange (LSE) opted for AMD’s dual-core AMD Opteron processors 275 and 875, running at 2.2GHz, to power the new trading platform, which will be launched in 2007.
Robin Paine, LSE’s chief technology officer, said the primary factor for choosing AMD processors was their ability to overcome the cooling challenges presented by an IT project of this scale.
Over the last three years, the LSE has pursued a technology road map (TRM) designed to provide its customers with the fastest, most cost-efficient, robust trading environment in the world. LSE says that the AMD Opteron processors will play a key role in achieving such optimal business performance, as well as helping with space optimization issues faced by many financial institutions.
Once completed, the TRM will enable the exchange to accelerate the implementation of capacity upgrades for one tenth of the current cost.
AMD Opteron processors feature AMD’s direct connect architecture, an integrated memory controller and hypertransport technology. The additional memory bandwidth and speed gains will allow the exchange to link two primary data centers with a third facility that acts as an arbitration facility.
Today’s markets are driven by the need for speed, said Mr Paine. AMD Opteron processors with Direct Connect Architecture offered a significant performance advantage over the competition.
