14 DAY TRIAL // Intel has just started shipping a new Xeon processor based on the Westemere architecture, the Xeon X5698, that has now become the company's fastest CPU to ever enter production as its clock speed has been set up at 4.4GHz.
According to CPU-World, in the middle of last year, when Intel's started manufacturing its refresh of the Xeon 5600 series, the company also produced a few special chips, that distinguished themselves thanks to their high operating clocks.
To put things into perspective, the slowest CPU that was showcased back then was clocked at no less than 4GHz, while the fastest model ran at an impressive 4.66GHz.
Among those processors there was also a chip clocked at 4.4GHz, that has now been released as the Xeon X5698.
As stated earlier, this new processor is based on the Westemere architecture, but, unlike most of its counterparts, it comes with four of the six cores available disabled, making it the only CPU in the Xeon 5600 series to feature a dual-core design.
However, the rest of the core has remained pretty much intact and the CPU packs the same 12MB of Level 3 cache memory as its older brothers while also featuring Hyper-Threading and Turbo Boost support.
In addition, the chip also carries dual QPI links, SSE 4.2 and AES-NI instruction support and is compatible with Intel's LGA 1366 socket.
Other features include a tri-channel memory controller, that works with DDR3 1066MHz DIMMs, VT-x and Intel TXT support as well as Intel's enhanced SpeedStep technology.
Sadly, the TDP of the chip and the maximum amount of memory supported is not yet known at this moment.
Pricing is also a mystery, but Intel is expected to ship the Xeon X5698 only to OEMs, so, most probably, the price will be negotiated once orders for the chip start coming in.