To those still waiting for AMD to release the quad-core "Barcelona" Opteron processors - stop holding your breath. AMD has announced that they are shipping the quad-core server chips in volume, and server OEM's like HP, Dell, and IBM should be receiving the processors soon. For the curious or forgetful, a brief history lesson - as far back as November 2007, AMD quad-core CPU's began locking up test systems due to an error in the L3 cache - popularly known as the TLB Bug. This problem caused AMD to make a somewhat strange decision - they shipped the quad-core desktop Phenom CPU to retailers with no real "cure" until the B3 stepping came along a few months later. In the meantime, motherboard makers were urged by AMD to alter their BIOS to sidestep the processes that could cause the TLB to rear its ugly head, but that fix also knocked overall system performance down about 10%. At the same time, AMD decided to postpone the server bound quad-core "Barcelona" Opteron CPU's. We all are aware of the public relations hit AMD took when they loosed buggy Phenom CPU's to the masses, and the true extent of the damage caused to the Opteron server line may never be known. Nevertheless, it is important to applaud the release of the bug-free Opteron chips, because they will reignite competition between AMD and Intel - and everyone benefits from competition.