Intel Preparing Q3 Launch for 'Caneland'

May 5, 2007

The launch of Intel's multiprocessor platform for servers will complete the company's transition to its Core microarchitecture, first introduced in 2006.

Intel is steadily moving toward converting the last of its products to its Core microarchitecture.

Following Intel's meeting with financial analysts on May 3, Thomas Kilroy, the vice president and general manager of Intel's Digital Enterprise Group, told eWEEK that the company is on schedule to release its "Caneland" platform for MP servers in the third quarter.

This MP or multiprocessor system offering will include a new quad-core processor that Intel has been calling "Tigerton," which will be sold under the Xeon 7300 series name.

The new processor will offer a TDP - an Intel term that refers to how much heat a chip has to dissipate - of 80 watts for standard rack systems and 50 watts for ultradense and blade servers. So far, Intel has not revealed other details of the processor, including configurations such as clock speed.

"With Intel bringing Core architecture to the MP space, we are providing our customers with a much more energy-efficient platform," Kilroy said.

Along with the Caneland platform, the Santa Clara, Calif., company will launch a new 7300 chip set, called "Clarksboro," which will support some of Intel's newer technologies, including four dedicated high-speed interconnects, a 64MB snoop-filter for improving system traffic, and full-buffered DIMM (dual in-line memory module) technology with DDR2-533 (double data rate 2) and DDR2-667, which will increase memory capacity.

The chip set will also include Intel's I/O Acceleration Technology 2, which provides for faster data flow between server applications and the network.

The new platform and chip set are geared for four-way systems but will also have the ability to scale up to systems with even more sockets. Hewlett-Packard has already expressed interest in the platform.

The final conversion of Intel's products to its Core architecture, which it first unveiled in 2006, comes as the company is preparing for its next major endeavor: moving its manufacturing from 65-nanometer to 45-nanometer.

The first of Intel's "Penryn" family of 45-nanometer processors is expected to hit the market later this year, with dual- and quad-core products aimed at notebooks, desktops and servers.

Intel will not launch a new microarchitecture until 2008 with "Nehalem." That will be followed by a shrink to 32-nanometer technology in 2009.

At the May 4 meeting, Intel CEO Paul Otellini mainly talked about the company's cost-cutting efforts, which started in 2006. Those cuts are expected to save the company about $5 billion during the next two years.

The meeting also placed a heavy emphasis on mobility, including laptops, ultraportable PCs and mobile internet devices, as well as low-cost PCs geared toward emerging markets.

On May 9, Intel will launch its fourth-generation Centrino mobile platform, "Santa Rosa," for both consumer and enterprise laptops.

"CPUs are becoming a bigger piece of the business and the company is making a push to compete in every possible area a microprocessor can be used," Doug Freedman, an analyst with American Technology Research, wrote after the meeting.

"With a - two - -year cycle potentially accelerating and 32nm slides already prepared for the event, we believe Intel has set the stage for a multiyear period of - outperforming - its competition," Freedman added.

Copyright 2007 by Ziff Davis Media, Distributed by United Press International