Between the Lines

Larry Dignan, Andrew Nusca and Rachel King

Intel breaks out high-end Xeons; Aims to 'democratize' high performance computing

By | March 30, 2010, 1:46pm PDT

Summary: Intel rolled out high-end Xeon server processors that promise three times the performance over previous versions. The plan is to democratize high performance computing.

Intel on Tuesday rolled out high-end Xeon server processors that promise three times the performance over previous versions.

In a nutshell, Intel is arguing that data centers can replace 20 single core servers with one new Xeon 7500 system.

The Xeon 7500 series launch comes amid a barrage of server and chip news in recent days. Intel rolled out more mainstream Xeons, AMD introduced its response and now we have more. The Xeon 7500 series is more for real-time analytics and high performance computing.

More:

The overall data center upgrade theme, however, still stands. At issue is the third of Intel’s customer base—AMD has a similar percentage—that is using single core and older servers. After more than a year of frozen capital spending, Intel is making a push to grab this upgrade cycle. Simply put, there are a lot of servers—not to mention PCs—to replace.

Indeed, Intel said it has rolled out a bevy of new PC and server chips. HP, Dell and IBM among others have launched new server systems. On a Webcast, Intel’s Kirk Skaugen, vice president of the chip giant’s data center group, said that the Xeon 7500 series is the largest performance jump in the chip’s history. “We are democratizing high-end computing,” he said.

Get email alerts on AMD, Intel and servers.

Among the key points about the Xeon 7500 series:

  • The processors expand from 2 to 256 chips per server;
  • They include 20 reliability features;
  • A 4x increase in memory capacity and 8x increase in memory bandwidth;
  • A “Machine Check Architecture Recovery,” which allows the chip to work with the operating system and virtual machine to recover from fatal system errors;
  • Virtualization tools for load balancing, server maintenance and downtime.

The high-end Xeons come in quad, six and eight core versions and can scale up to 21 cores.

Here’s the pricing:

Kick off your day with ZDNet's daily e-mail newsletter. It's the freshest tech news and opinion, served hot. Get it.

Topics

Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and SmartPlanet as well as Editorial Director of ZDNet's sister site TechRepublic.

Disclosure

Larry Dignan

Larry Dignan has nothing to disclose. He doesn’t hold investments in the technology companies he covers.

Biography

Larry Dignan

Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and SmartPlanet as well as Editorial Director of ZDNet's sister site TechRepublic. He was most recently Executive Editor of News and Blogs at ZDNet. Prior to that he was executive news editor at eWeek and news editor at Baseline. He also served as the East Coast news editor and finance editor at CNET News.com. Larry has covered the technology and financial services industry since 1995, publishing articles in WallStreetWeek.com, Inter@ctive Week, The New York Times, and Financial Planning magazine. He's a graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism and the University of Delaware.

For daily updates, follow Larry on Twitter.

Related Discussions on TechRepublic

Did you know you can take part in these discussions with your ZDNet membership?
2
Comments

Join the conversation!

Just In

RE: Intel breaks out high-end Xeons; Aims to 'democratize' high performance computing
monkeyman1140@... 30th Mar 2010
The best way to democratize high performance is make it cheaper, which intel fails miserably at
0 Votes
+ -
INVENTORS - DO NOT TRUST INTEL

I invented a CPU cooler - 3 times better than best - better than water.
Intel have major CPU cooling problems - "Intel's microprocessors were
generating so much heat that they were melting" (iht.com) - try to talk
to them - they send my communications to my competitor & will not
talk to me.

Winners of major 'Corporate Social Responsibility' awardS!!!

Huh!!!!

When did RICO get repealed?"

INVENTORS - DO NOT TRUST INTEL!!!

BTW, I have the evidence - my competitor gave it to me.

BBTW, I am prepared to apologise to Intel if;
? They can show that the actions were those of a single individual in
the company, acting outside corporate policy, and:
? They gain redress on my behalf.
The best way to democratize high performance is make it cheaper, which intel fails miserably at

Join the conversation!

Formatting +
BB Codes - Note: HTML is not supported in forums
  • [b] Bold [/b]
  • [i] Italic [/i]
  • [u] Underline [/u]
  • [s] Strikethrough [/s]
  • [q] "Quote" [/q]
  • [ol][*] 1. Ordered List [/ol]
  • [ul][*] · Unordered List [/ul]
  • [pre] Preformat [/pre]
  • [quote] "Blockquote" [/quote]
ie8 fix

The best of ZDNet, delivered

ZDNet Newsletters

Get the best of ZDNet delivered straight to your inbox

Facebook Activity

White Papers, Webcasts, & Resources
ie8 fix