Intel Previews Xeon 'Nehalem-EX' Processor

May 27, 2009

Enlarge

Intel's Boyd Davis holds up an Intel 8-core Nehalem-EX processor.

Intel Corporation today previewed a new Intel Xeon processor codenamed "Nehalem-EX." The processor will be at the heart of the next generation of intelligent and expandable high-end Intel server platforms, which will deliver a number of new technical advancements and boost enterprise computing performance.

In production later this year, the Nehalem-EX processor will feature up to eight cores inside a single chip supporting 16 threads and 24Mb of cache. Its performance increase will be dramatic, posting the highest-ever jump from a previous generation processor.

Nehalem-EX will add new reliability, availability and serviceability (RAS) features, such as Machine Check Architecture (MCA) Recovery. Together with new levels of performance, both high-end processors should speed the move away from more expensive, proprietary RISC-processor based systems.

Ideal for server consolidation, virtualized applications, data demanding enterprise applications and technical computing environments, Nehalem-EX will offer up to nine times the memory bandwidth1 of the previous-generation Intel Xeon 7400 platform. Nehalem-EX will also double the memory capacity with up to 16 memory slots per processor socket, and offer four high-bandwidth QuickPath Interconnect links. Nehalem-EX will provide tremendous scalability, from large-memory two-socket systems through eight-socket systems capable of processing 128 threads simultaneously without the need for third-party chips to "glue" the platform together. Additional scalability options including greater sockets counts will be possible with third-party solutions.

Intel delivers the most complete server portfolio: The Xeon 5500 series delivers leading performance, energy efficiency and flexibility for infrastructure applications. Nehalem-EX will greatly improve on today's Intel Xeon 7400 scalable performance, flexibility and advanced RAS features for data demanding enterprise applications and server consolidation. Itanium delivers the highest scalability and most advanced RAS features for the most demanding environments.

Source: Intel (news : web)