Earlier in the day, we had reported about AMD unveiling their new 8- and 12-core server processors as part of the Opteron 6000 Series platform. Now Intel will join the 8-core processor race with their Xeon processor codenamed ‘Nehalem-EX’. The processor is expected to serve as the core for the next-generation of intelligent and expandable high-end Intel server platforms.
This processor will boast of featuring up to eight cores inside just one chip that lends support to sixteen threads with Intel Hyper-threading technology and 24MB of cache. It will add to the RAS features expected of Intel’s Itanium processor family like MCA Recovery. Nehalem architecture is engineered around Intel’s 45nm high-k metal gate technology process and the QuickPath Architecture offers four high-bandwidth links.
Intel’s newest offering extends scalability for up to eight sockets through Quick Path Interconnects which can be expanded with third-party node controllers. It also features Intel scalable memory buffer and scalable memory interconnects, 2.3 billion transistors and support for a maximum of sixteen memory slots per processor socket. The processor is claimed to be capable of delivering a lower total cost of ownership along with power efficiency and flexibility for infrastructure applications.
Intel will start manufacturing the Nehalem-EX processor in the latter half of the current year. No word on the expected pricing details has surfaced as yet.
