As mentioned in several of our previous posts, leading chip maker, Santa Clara-based Intel is expected to release a number of new processors designed for the server market. The big news about the upcoming chips is that, with them, Intel will be the first to introduce a six-core processing unit, developed using the company's high-end 45nm process technology. It is believed that the official announcement for the new CPUs will be made next week, on Monday (thus confirming previous rumors), just as VMware Inc.'s annual show debuts in Las Vegas.

 

It appears that Intel has decided to show off its new 6-core chips at VMware's event mainly because the new chips are specifically designed to deliver an impressive performance for virtualization server platforms, several analysts believe. The 6-core power from Intel's upcoming chips is expected to bring about considerable improvement to the management of both virtual and physical systems. It is expected that upcoming Intel-based virtualization server systems will be capable of providing more power in a smaller, presumably energy-efficient system.

 

After Intel announces its first 45nm 6-core chips, codenamed Dunnington, several system manufacturers are said to follow suit, by announcing their own server systems designed with virtualization in mind. The new systems will most probably feature Intel's upcoming 6-core processors, which will be part of the company's Xeon 7400 lineup. These new CPUs should provide the required performance levels for the next-generation server systems.

 

"The big cache and six cores will give customers a nice bump in performance," Pat Gelsinger, senior vice president and general manager of Intel Corp.'s Digital Enterprise Group said, talking about the company's next-generation server CPUs. "We're quite excited about it."

 

The new Xeon 7400 family of processors will initially debut with three models, including the Xeon X7460, the E7450 and the low-wattage L7455. These units are expected to provide a maximum core speed of 2.67GHz, for the company's flagship model, the X7460, and a much lower TDP of 65W for the company's low-end L7455 model.