Advanced Micro Devices announced plans to offer mid- and low-power Opteron processors in the first half of 2004.

The new 55 watt and 30 watt processors take aim at enterprise computing systems that require power conservation, such as blade servers and storage devices.

"With mid- and low-power AMD Opteron processors, AMD will now enable an enterprise to employ a common infrastructure based on AMD64 technology at all levels of its computing environment -- from high-performance clusters to blade servers," said Marty Seyer, VP and GM of AMD's microprocessor unit, in a statement.

Previously the chipmaker had only released plans for higher speed devices, trying to keep pace with Intel Corp.'s technologies. With the announcement, AMD extends the reach for its 64-bit Opteron 100-, 200- and 800- series product lines, and moves into burgeoning power conservation markets.

"The blade server market is expected to experience tremendous growth in the next few years," said Mark Melenovsky, director of server research at IDC, said in a statement. "The benefits to be recognized by enterprise IT departments in terms of lower total cost of ownership and ease of management will mean more and more companies will turn to blade servers for their data center solutions."