IT & Network Infrastructure : Intel 'Nehalem' Chip Ramps Up Performance, Virtualization Capabilities

In what Intel officials called the most significant processor rollout since the Pentium Pro in 1995, the chip maker March 30 unveiled the Xeon 5500 series—code-named Nehalem EP—for two-socket servers. The chip was designed to meet the demands of data center administrators under pressure to keep operating expenses down even as workloads increase. The 45-nanometer, quad-core Xeon 5500 series offers enhancements to improve performance and efficiency, such as an integrated memory controller, triple the memory bandwidth of previous Xeon chips, a chip-to-chip interconnect, greater virtualization capabilities, and the ability to dynamically adjust to workloads and conditions. Intel officials say the Xeon 5500 series set 30 performance records and the performance increase was attained within the same power and thermal envelopes as previous chips.