Company working on a server-focused version of its mainstream desktop chips

Sep 4, 2009 10:05 GMT  ·  By

Santa Clara, California-based Intel, the world's leading vendor of high-performance, x86-based computer processors, is reportedly planning to put its upcoming Westmere processors into single-socket, entry-level server systems. Codenamed Clarkdale, Intel's next-generation, mainstream, dual-core CPUs will be designed using the new Westmere architecture and will come with an integrated graphics core. According to the chip maker, there are plans for versions based on the aforementioned processors that will go inside single-socket servers.

During a discussion of Intel's collaboration with software giant Microsoft on the much-anticipated Windows 7 operating system, the world's leading chip maker offered details on its product roadmap, which includes the much-anticipated Core i3 and Core i5 brands, for the mainstream market. “It is true that we do single-socket server and embedded derivatives on our client parts, but [there is] no announcement at this time,” George Alfs, an Intel spokesperson, said, according to a recent news report by the IDG News Service.

Intel's current line of Core 2 Duo chips, designed for mainstream computer systems, will be updated with the Clarkdale chips, designed to provide users with an improved performance and reduced power consumption. Thanks to the integrated graphics core, the new chips are expected to deliver a better system graphics performance, while drawing less power than the chip maker's current Core 2 Duo chips. Server chips could also benefit from these features, as well as the multi-thread capabilities of the new Clarkdale ones.

Intel's Westmere processors are designed using the company's next-generation, 32nm manufacturing technology and will come as a process shrink from Intel's current Nehalem microarchitecture. The current microarchitecture is the chip maker's first to integrate the memory controller on the CPU die, consequently providing improved performance through a better communication of the processor with the system components.