Intel has updated its server processor lineup with the launch of Xeon 7500 processor series, which the company says will offer average of three times increase in processing speed and more than 20 new reliability features.
The company claims the new processor to offer up to eight times the memory bandwidth and four times the memory capacity with 16 memory slots per processor compared to the Intel Xeon processor 7400 series.
Expandable to include from two to 256 chips per server, the new Intel Xeon processors enable IT managers to consolidate up to 20 older single-core, 4-chip servers onto a single server while maintaining the same level of performance and reducing energy costs by up to 92%.
According to Intel, the new Xeon processor 7500 series supports up to eight integrated cores and 16 threads, and can scale up to 32 cores and 64 threads per 4-chip platform or 64 cores and 128 threads per 8-chip platform, and is available with frequencies up to 2.66GHz, and 24MB of Smart Cache memory, four QPI links and Turbo Boost technology.
Intel said that the Xeon processor X7560, with eight cores and 24MB cache size, is built for highly parallel, data demanding and mission-critical workloads, whereas the Xeon processor X7542 is a frequency-optimised 6-core option at 2.66GHz targeted for super node high-performance computing applications in science and financial services.
The new processor possess Machine Check Architecture (MCA) Recovery feature currently used in Itanium and RISC processors that allows the silicon to work with the operating system and virtual machine manager to recover from otherwise fatal system errors.
The company said that the new processors offer scalability through modular building blocks enabled by Intel QuickPath Technology (QPI) interconnect, while the Intel virtualisation technologies including I/O virtualisation capabilities and FlexMigration enables live VM migration across all Intel Core microarchitecture-based platforms.
Kirk Skaugen, vice president of the Intel architecture group and general manager of Intel’s data center group, said: The Xeon 7500 brings mission critical capabilities to the mainstream by delivering the most significant leap in performance, scalability and reliability ever seen from Intel.”
Manufacturers that are expected to announce products include Bull, Cisco, Cray, Dell, Fujitsu, Hitachi, HP, IBM, Inspur, NEC, Oracle, SGI, Supermicro and Quanta.
