Intel debuts new Xeon, quad-core chips

Intel today outlined its new lower-power, more efficient processor strategy at the Intel Developer Forum. Intel's senior vice president Pat Gelsinger, showed how Intel will deliver better computing performance and energy efficiency this year while reducing the total cost of ownership. Intel's future roadmap focuses on its next–generation Core microarchitecture, an evolution to its Intel Core Duo chips; in addition, Intel announced that it will ship three new dual-core processors for servers and workstations in 2006 and gave developers their first public view of a running quad–core processor. By the end of the year, Intel said that its new technologies would help it regain the performance per watt title, taken by AMD's Opteron chips.

"2006 marks a year of transitions for Intel –– a transition to a new process technology and a powerful new microarchitecture, along with the delivery of new platforms solving tough problems for our customers," said Gelsinger. "This year we have a line–up of enterprise platforms and technologies that will inspire developers with opportunities and excite IT managers with critical capabilities to manage costs and run their business."

At his IDF keynote, Gelsinger announced that Conroe will now also be a part of Intel's Professional Business Platform, which is codenamed Averill and is expected to be available in the second–half of 2006. He said that Averill will offer advanced security and management functions for businesses through the Conroe dual–core processor along with three other technologies: a new chipset codenamed Broadwater, Intel Virtualization Technology and the second generation of Intel Active Management Technology.

Three new processors

For dual–processor servers and workstations, Intel said it would ship three new processors in 2006. Sossaman, an ultra–low–power processor, is scheduled to ship next week and is designed for server blades, storage devices and telecommunications equipment. Dempsey is scheduled to ship by the end of the month and is the first processor for a new Intel Xeon–based platform, codenamed Bensley. Intel said that the majority of the products in Bensley product line will ship with power consumptions of below 100 watts, which would help it regain performance–per–watt leadership it has lost to AMD.

In the third quarter of 2006, Intel will update the Bensley platform with the Woodcrest processor, which will further reduce power consumption by 35 percent while delivering greater than 80 percent improvement in computing performance. Gelsinger was joined on stage by HP exec Gary Campbell to offer HP's support for the Bensley/Woodcrest platform.

Quad-core processors due in 2007

Gelsinger also gave developers their first public view of a running quad–core processor, codenamed Clovertown. Designed for dual–processor servers, Clovertown is socket–compatible with the Bensley platform and is slated to ship in early 2007. According to Intel, it will deliver increased processing capacity and has been optimized for multi–threaded applications, such as those used in databases, financial services and supply–chain management. Intel also said it plans to ship a quad–core processor, codenamed Kentsfield, for high–end desktop PCs in early 2007.

The exec also offer a look at the next generation of Intel Virtualization Technology called Intel VT. Designed for enterprise servers, the technology helps IT organizations streamline their infrastructure, optimize utilization, reduce total costs and improve business agility. Intel began to ship processors with Intel VT last year. The company's next generation of virtualization, Intel Virtualization for Directed I/O (Intel VT–d), will include I/O virtualization to assign I/O devices to virtual machines, which it says will provide a more robust, higher performance platform for virtualized systems.

The company also announced the immediate availability of a specification for developers to evaluate and design future Intel VT–d supported products. Both Microsoft and VMware executives appeared during the keynote to offer support for and collaboration on the Intel VT–d specification. VMware CEO Diane Greene outlined plans to support Intel VT in all of its enterprise virtualization products, including ESX Server, in 2006, while Microsoft discussed how the new technology provides a hardware foundation for the Windows virtualization architecture.

Additionally, Microsoft VP Bob Muglia discussed how the two companies are collaborating to advance PC manageability capabilities for IT departments. He said that Intel Active Management Technology (Intel AMT) combined with Microsoft's Systems Management Server product will provide IT managers with the ability to manage PCs on their networks--even when these devices are turned off or have inoperable hard drives or operating systems.

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