Intel Releases New Quad- and Dual-Core Xeon Processors

Intel is planning to release four new Xeon processors, including a low-watt, quad-core chip, as the company gears up to roll out its "Dunnington" processor for large multisocket server systems later in September.

On Sept. 8, Intel will release three new quad-core Xeon processors—the Xeon L5430, the X5470 and the X5492—along with a dual-core Xeon chip called the X5270. All four Xeon processors are produced using Intel's 45-nanometer chip manufacturing.

The release of these four Xeon processors is just the lead-up to a bigger announcement that Intel has ready for release in this month. That announcement will focus on Dunnington, the code name for a six-core processor that Intel has designed for the multisocket server space. The Dunnington processor will be compatible with the chip sets used with Intel's current crop of Xeon processor MP (multiprocessor) systems.

While Intel spokespeople have declined to comment on any specifics, articles on several Web sites, including a recent article on Tom's Hardware, point to a Sept. 15 launch date for Dunnington, which would come a week after the release of the new Xeon processors and coincide with the VMworld conference in Las Vegas. The Dunnington processor is expected to have 16MB of cache and a virtualization technology called FlexMigration, which will make it easier for virtual machines to migrate from systems that use older 65-nm processors to ones that use the newer 45-nm chips.

While Intel did not talk much about Dunnington at its Intel Developer Forum in August, Advanced Micro Devices filled the void and its executives claimed that its upcoming 45-nanometer processor, "Shanghai," would first compete against Dunnington in the MP server space and than challenge Intel's upcoming line of chips built on the Nehalem microarchitecture. The first Nehalem-based chips are slated for high-end and gaming desktops as well as single-socket servers.

Before Dunnington, Intel plans to focus on the rounding out its Xeon lineup.

The four new Intel Xeon processors including one low-watt processor called the L5430, which has a thermal envelope of 50 watts along with a clock speed of 2.66GHz and a 1333MHz front side bus. (The new Nehalem processors, due out by the fourth quarter, eliminate the FSB).

The other two quad-core chips, the Xeon X5470 and the X5492, offer a decent uptick in terms of clock speed. The Xeon X5470 has a clock speed of 3.33GHz along with a 1333MHz FSB, while the X5492 hits 3.4GHz with a 1600MHz FSB. The X5470 works at 120 watts, while the X5492 works within a 150-watt thermal envelope.

Finally, the dual-core Xeon X5270 has a clock speed of 3.5GHz, along with a 1333MHz FSB and works within a 80-watt envelope. The quad-core processors are available as of Sept. 8 from Intel, while the dual-core part will arrive later this quarter.

The listed prices for these new Xeon processors are $562 for the L5430, $1,386 for the X5470, $1,493 for the X5492 and $1,172 for the X5270. All the prices are calculated in 1,000-unit shipments.