The AMD Opteron 8212 HE (F3) was a server/workstation processor with 2 cores, launched in August 2006, at an MSRP of $1019. It is part of the Opteron lineup, using the Santa Rosa architecture with Socket F. To further increase overall system performance, up to eight Opteron 8212 HE (F3) CPUs can link up in a multi-processor (SMP) configuration. Opteron 8212 HE (F3) has 1 MB of L2 cache per core and operates at 2000 MHz. AMD is building the Opteron 8212 HE (F3) on a 90 nm production process using 227 million transistors. The multiplier is locked on Opteron 8212 HE (F3), which limits its overclocking capabilities. With a TDP of 68 W, the Opteron 8212 HE (F3) consumes typical power levels for a modern PC. AMD's processor supports DDR2 memory with a dual-channel interface. The highest officially supported memory speed is 667 MT/s, but with overclocking (and the right memory modules) you can go even higher. ECC memory is supported, too, which is an important capability for mission-critical systems, to avoid data corruption. For communication with other components in the machine, Opteron 8212 HE (F3) uses a PCI-Express Gen 1 connection. This processor lacks integrated graphics, you might need a graphics card. The SSE4 instruction set is not supported, which can cause problems with modern games, as they require that capability. Hardware virtualization is available on the Opteron 8212 HE (F3), which greatly improves virtual machine performance.