AMD, Intel’s arch nemesis, is rolling out its first 45nm quad-core Opteron processors today. The move to 45nm brings lower power consumption (a decrease by about 35 percent) and increased (by 35 percent, too) “performance,” a term so nebulous it can mean anything.

The processor uses the code name Shanghai. The previous 65nm Opterons went by Barcelona, who are absolutely tearing up La Liga, as it were.

The new Opterons run from 2.3GHz to 2.7GHz.