Intel ships Xeon quad-core server chips

Intel Corp. said it has started shipping to OEMs its fastest quad-core Xeon server platform, formerly codenamed Caneland.

The chipmaker also released brand names for the components of the new platform, which started shipping in volumes in June and is built on Intel's Core microarchitecture. The platform comprises the Xeon processor 7300 series, formerly called Tigerton; and the Intel 7300 chipset, formerly Clarksboro, Kirk Skaugen, VP and co-general manager of Intel's server products group, said in the company's blog.

The fastest version of the CPU will be available to OEMs in volume production running at 2.93GHz. The new platform delivers up to 2x performance over Intel's dual-core Xeon 7100 processor series, and more than 2x the performance per watt. The platform, which is also available in a lower 50W version, is built for use in blade and high-density servers.

The Core micro-architecture replaces the NetBurst architecture used in older Xeon processors. Core is more energy efficient and is better for use in high-density blade servers, Intel asserts.

Intel plans to ship in the second half of the year a Xeon processor built using 45nm process technology. Code-named Penryn, the new processor line is expected to eventually cross product lines from desktop to server, workstation and mobile. The line will include dual-core and quad-core chips.

The 45nm process builds a smaller chip with less power leakage than the 65nm and 90nm predecessors. The 45nm process is widely seen as the next great advancement in the semiconductor industry.

While Intel has been shipping quad-core processors since Q4 of last year, its rival Advanced Micro Devices isn't expected to ship its first quad-core product, codenamed Barcelona, until later this year. The company is not expected to ship 45nm processors until 2009.

Also on Tuesday, Intel made available under the open source GNU General Public License its development tools for building applications on multicore processors. The Threading Building Blocks, a software C++ template library, is available under version 2 of the GPL with the runtime exception.

The TBB is offered to make parallelism, which is the execution of multiple tasks at the same time, more accessible to programmers. The tools are also available as a fully supported commercial product.

- Antone Gonsalves
InformationWeek