As a part of the continuous effort against Opteron, Intel today announced the availability of its last planned single-core Intel Xeon processor.

This last model, which concludes the Intel single-core series, offers support of 64-bit technology, works at 3.8Ghz and it has 2 MB L2 cache.

In the coming weeks, Intel will introduce its first dual-core Intel Xeon processor, codenamed "Paxville.". Originally scheduled in 2006, Paxville will deliver improved performance for both dual-processor (DP) and multi-processor (MP)-based servers. Intel has also introduced some Xeon versions for its blade servers: Intel Xeon LV 3 GHz, which requires only 55 W, and Intel Xeon MV 3.20 GHz, which requires 90 W.

Dell has already announced the four server models and two workstations based on the new dual-core Xeon processor, but the complete specification list was not made public.

Intel has to stall AMD's evolution, since in July it succeeded to reach 11.2% on the server market thanks to the Opteron processor. Although Intel is still the main player on the market, AMD has succeeded to convince two important server producers, HP and Sun, to adopt its processors.