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AskAboutComputers.comKeeping up with Technology,
so you do not have to
AskAboutComputers.com
Keeping up with Technology,
so you do not have to
Tid-bits
6/26 - Intel releases the Xeon 5100 series of server processors today. The chips are "the first to take advantage of Intel’s Core microarchitecture".
The new chip is not Intel's first dual-core offering. The Xeon 5100's predecessor is dual-core, too. However, the new chip outperforms its predecessor by a large margin, and uses up less power in the process. It thus offers a "blend of power and efficiency".
The Xeon 5100s are part of the Bensley server platform, which has been around for a while. Those who run Bensley systems can simply replace their processors with the new Xeons, upgrade the BIOS, and they should be good. The new chips are thus “drop-in compatible”.
The chip is built upon a 65nm process technology. As process technologies shrink, performance has the potential to go up. The 65nm process in this case "boosts speed".
The 3GHz version of the Xeon 5100 is the performance part. It has a TDP (Thermal Design Point) of 80W. To put this in perspective, the predecessor had a TDP of 130W. Other Xeon 5100 parts are, at present, 65W. In practice, the chips should use less power than their TDP rating, thanks to "extreme power management techniques".
The Core microarchitecture is also the foundation of Intel's future mobile and desktop processors. Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Extreme are not released yet. Word is out that the desktop offering will launch on July 23, and the mobile counterpart sometime in August.
The race is on for multicore these days. The Core microarchitecture is "multicore-optimized".
One of the reasons that chips under the new architecture perform so well is that they can execute as many as 4 instructions at the same time. Also, the L2 cache is shared, which means that one of the cores can use the entire cache if needed. Intel has also improved memory latency, in spite of the fact that the new chips do not use an integrated memory controller (IMC), as AMD does.
The server chips are priced competitively--about as much as desktop processors. The entire systems, however, will cost more. Get ready for "the fastest-ramping product in the company’s history".