AMD in June rolled out its six-core “Istanbul” Opteron chip, which can run on servers with two or more sockets. Both AMD and Intel boasted of improved performance and energy efficiency in their new processors, as well as enhanced virtualization capabilities.

AMD appears to be making some gains. Intel still holds a huge majority of the global microprocessor market, but AMD in the first quarter of this year gained a bit of ground, according to research firm iSuppli. In that quarter, Intel’s market share dropped 2.5 points, to 79.1 percent. AMD’s market share rose 2.3 points, to 12.8 percent.