Almost five months after the debut of its Core i7 desktop processors, Intel has announced a whole lineup of new Xeons based on the same Nehalem architecture. We’ve been busy benchmarking these server offerings over the past few days, and we should have detailed architectural information and performance numbers ready for you tonight.
In the meantime, check out the new Xeon line for dual-processor systems. All of these CPUs have integrated memory controllers and QuickPath interfaces, meaning they don’t need to go through a chipset to talk to memory and other processors (just like AMD’s Opterons).
| Model | Clock speed |
Cores | L3 cache | QPI link speed |
Max DDR3 speed |
TDP | Turbo? | Hyper- Threading? |
Price |
| Xeon W5580 | 3.2GHz | 4 | 8MB | 6.4 GT/s | 1333MHz | 130 W | Y | Y | $1600 |
| Xeon X5570 | 2.93GHz | 4 | 8MB | 6.4 GT/s | 1333MHz | 95 W | Y | Y | $1386 |
| Xeon X5560 | 2.8GHz | 4 | 8MB | 6.4 GT/s | 1333MHz | 95 W | Y | Y | $1172 |
| Xeon X5550 | 2.66GHz | 4 | 8MB | 6.4 GT/s | 1333MHz | 95 W | Y | Y | $958 |
| Xeon E5540 | 2.53GHz | 4 | 8MB | 5.86 GT/s | 1066MHz | 80 W | Y | Y | $744 |
| Xeon E5530 | 2.4GHz | 4 | 8MB | 5.86 GT/s | 1066MHz | 80 W | Y | Y | $530 |
| Xeon E5520 | 2.26GHz | 4 | 8MB | 5.86 GT/s | 1066MHz | 80 W | Y | Y | $373 |
| Xeon L5520 | 2.26GHz | 4 | 8MB | 5.86 GT/s | 1066MHz | 60 W | Y | Y | $530 |
| Xeon E5506 | 2.13GHz | 4 | 4MB | 4.8 GT/s | 800MHz | 80 W | N | N | $266 |
| Xeon L5506 | 2.13GHz | 4 | 4MB | 4.8 GT/s | 800MHz | 60 W | N | N | $422 |
| Xeon E5504 | 2.00GHz | 4 | 8MB | 4.8 GT/s | 800MHz | 80 W | N | N | $224 |
| Xeon E5502 | 1.86GHz | 2 | 4MB | 4.8 GT/s | 800MHz | 80 W | N | N | $188 |
There are also three new Xeons for single-socket servers—the W3570, W3540, and W3520—but those are a little less exciting, since they have pretty much the same specs and prices as desktop Core i7s.
So, which companies have unveiled Xeon 5500-based servers for the occasion? Intel’s press release names the usual suspects: Dell, Fujitsu, HP, IBM, and Sun. There’s a newcomer, too: Cisco, which announced its first server products last week. All in all, Intel says "more than 230 unique systems" from "more than 70 system manufacturers around the world" will sport the new Xeons.
Big server makers are certainly going full steam ahead with the launch. HP has introduced a new ProLiant G6 server series that includes DL380, DL370, DL360, DL180 and DL160 rack-optimized systems, BL 490c, BL 460c and BL 280c blades, and ML370, ML350 and ML150 tower servers. The firm also has Xeon 5500-powered Z series workstations due on April 6.
Meanwhile, IBM has released Xeon 5500-powered System x3650 M2 and x3550 M2 enterprise servers, BladeCenter HS22 blades, and System x iDataPlex dx360 M2 storage servers. As for Dell, it’s rolled out PowerEdge R710 and R610 rack servers, M710 and M610 blades, and T610 towers.
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