Expanding the Xeon line of products, Intel has released a couple of new Quad Core processors. These come with a Thermal Design Power (TDP) of 50Watts. Yes, some of you might have figured this out by now, we'll soon cool down our processors just by blowing over them as we would to put out a candle. As Intel so kindly did the math for us, that gives a 12.5Watt power consumption per core. This will come as a blow for the power companies; while some benefit from selling more processors, others will lose the money they would normally get from the electricity bill, imagine the bad luck.

The low-voltage processors are the Quad Core Intel Xeon L5320 and L5310. L5320 runs at 1.8GHz and the L5310 at 1.6GHz, both having a "unique" 8MB of on die cache and a front side bus of 1066MHz. Pricing for these beauties is at 519$ in 1.000 unit quantities for the Intel Xeon L5320 and 455$ in 1.000 unit quantities for the Intel Xeon L5310.

"Intel has really responded to the industry's call to deliver unprecedented breakthroughs for data center energy efficiency," said Kirk Skaugen, vice president of Intel's Digital Enterprise Group and general manager of the Server Platform Group.

The performance level offered by these processors isn't decreased in any way compared to the previous models available on the market, taking a big step downwards in power consumption. The TDP of previous Intel Xeon Quad Core processors varies between 80 and 120Watts, making this a 35-60% drop in power consumption.

"IT managers can get outstanding quad-core Intel Xeon server performance today and at no premium to dual-core products. We are thrilled to drive further records in lower power consumption and we won't stop here. Our engineers and architects are passionate about delivering even more power-saving innovations down the road."