Intel Launches First Industry-Standard Quad-Core Products for High-End, Multi-Processor Servers

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Intel Now Offering 20-Plus Server and Desktop Quad Cores From 50 Watts and up to 3GHz

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Intel Corporation has unveiled the industry's first quad-core processors specifically designed for multi-processor (MP) servers running applications requiring uncompromised performance, reliability and scalability. Such applications are typically run in virtualized environments for server consolidation and database uses, enterprise resource planning and business intelligence.

The six new Quad-Core Xeon(R) 7300 series processors can deliver more than twice the performance and more than three times the performance per watt over the company's previous generation dual-core products. They complete the company's speedy transition to its innovative and energy-efficient Core(TM) microarchitecture in less than 15 months. This platform's energy-efficient performance, coupled with enhanced virtualization capabilities, will enable customers to significantly lower their total cost of ownership.

The energy-efficient 7300 series includes frequencies up to 2.93GHz at 130 watts, several 80-watt processors and a 50-watt version optimized for four socket blades and high-density rack form factors with a frequency of 1.86GHz. The Intel(R) 7300 chipset with Data Traffic Optimizations provides a balanced platform design with several new technologies that enhance data movement between the processors, memory and I/O connections. HP delivered a new blade world record(2) for SAP(R) Sales and Distribution (SD) Benchmark with a result of 3,500 SD users on a HP ProLiant BL680c G5 blade server with four Quad-core Intel(R) Xeon(R) processor model E7340s running at 2.4 GHz.

"Intel Xeon-based multi-processor servers are the backbone of the enterprise," said Tom Kilroy, Intel vice president and co-general manager of the Digital Enterprise Group. "With the Xeon 7300 series, Intel is delivering new levels of performance and performance per watt, and driving the Intel Core microarchitecture into such innovative systems as four-socket, 16-core blades that use less energy than our older models. It's simply amazing."

New Levels of Virtualization and Scalability

By delivering the benefits of the Intel Core Microarchitecture with quad-core performance and Intel(R) Virtualization Technology to these high-end servers, Intel is providing customers with an ideal platform for virtualization and server consolidation.

In addition to twice the cores, the 7300 series and Intel 7300 chipset offer up to four times the memory capacity of Intel's previous MP platforms, enabling very large consolidation ratios that can reduce space, power and operation costs.

With the introduction of the Xeon 7300, users will now be able to pool all of their Intel Core microarchitecture based server resources, whether they are single-, dual- or multi-processor based, into a dynamic virtual server infrastructure that allows live virtual machine migration that can improve usage models like failover, load balancing, disaster recovery, or server maintenance. The previously announced Intel VT FlexMigration will assist the seamless addition of Intel's next generation 45nm Core microarchitecture-based platforms to such resource pools.

"VMware and Intel have worked together to optimize VMware ESX Server(1) on the Xeon 7300, resulting in new levels of performance for our combined solution," said Brian Byun, VMware's vice president, Global Partners and Solutions. "With the introduction of the Quad-Core Intel(R) Xeon Processor 7300 Series, our partners and customers benefit from increased platform choice and increased performance headroom from the new quad-core four-socket server systems. These advances in the Intel platform, combined with our joint work on enhancing VMware VMotion(1) compatibility, means increased customer ROI and investment protection for building out their VMware virtual infrastructure." Using the VMmark benchmark, which measures virtualization performance, an Intel 7300 series-based system achieved the highest single-server virtualization metric.

A simultaneous release of a 50-watt processor, or 12.5-watt per core, will drive the production of energy-efficient ultra-dense deployments such as four-socket blade servers and dense rack form factors. Intel is also improving business productivity by offering configurations with large memory footprints and up to 32-way scalability.

Building on the leadership established by the Quad-Core Intel Xeon processor 5300 series, the new Quad-Core Intel Xeon processor 7300 series sets new world records(2) on key industry-standard benchmarks:

HP delivered several world record results on its HP ProLiant DL580 G5 server. On the TPC(1)-C benchmark, which measures database performance, HP shattered the previous record with a score of 407,079(2) tpmC at $1.71/tpmC using the Microsoft SQL(1) Server Database. Using the SAP(1)-SD benchmark, which measures ERP performance, the company set a new record with a score of 3705 SD users(2). On the SPEC(1)web2005 benchmark, which measures web server performance, HP achieved an all-time record score of 30,261.

A Fujitsu-Siemens PRIMERGY(1) RX600 S4 server running BEA JRockit JVM delivered a record-breaking SPECjbb(1)2005 result of 437,412(2) BOPS, 101 percent better than previous-generation Intel Xeon processor based platforms.

An IBM(1) System x3850 M2 server using the SPECint(1)_rate_base2006 benchmark, which measures integer throughput, set a new world record with a score of 184(2).

A Lenovo R630 G7 server using the SPECint(1)_rate2006 benchmark, which measures "peak" integer throughput, set a new world record with a score of 214(2).

The Quad-Core Intel Xeon Processor 7300 Series-based servers demonstrate outstanding virtualization capability by delivering up to 167 percent performance improvement compared to the previous generation of Intel processors. This result was achieved with Virtual Iron 4.0 Software running the vConsolidate benchmark.

Starting today, servers based on the Xeon 7300 series processors are expected to be announced by more than 50 system manufacturers, including Dell, Egenera, Fujitsu, Fujitsu-Siemens, Hitachi, HP, IBM, NEC, Sun, Supermicro, and Unisys. For channel customers looking for complete platforms based on these new processors, Intel offers the Intel(R) S7000FC4UR server platform. The platform delivers strong, scalable performance, expansive capacity and proven enterprise-class reliability for virtualization and consolidation.

Many software vendors are also supporting Xeon 7300 based platforms with innovative solutions enabling virtualization and scalable performance. These include BEA, Microsoft, Oracle, SAP and VMware. In addition, the Solaris Operating System and thousands of applications that operate on it can immediately take advantage of the performance leadership of Intel Xeon 7300-based platforms offering an enterprise-class, mission-critical UNIX OS for Intel Xeon processor-based servers.

Pricing of these new quad-core processors depends on the speeds, features and amount ordered, and ranges from $856 to $2,301 in quantities of 1,000. For more details on the performance characteristics of the Quad-Core Intel Xeon Processor 7300 series, visit www.intel.com/performance/server/xeon_mp/summary.htm.

For more details on the Intel S7000FC4UR server system visit www.intel.com/design/servers/platforms/S7000FC4UR.

About Intel

Intel, the world leader in silicon innovation, develops technologies, products and initiatives to continually advance how people work and live. Additional information about Intel is available at www.intel.com/pressroom and http://blogs.intel.com.

Intel, the Intel logo and Intel Xeon are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the United States and other countries.

(1) Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.

Disclaimer:

Performance tests and ratings are measured using specific computer systems and/or components and reflect the approximate performance of Intel products as measured by those tests. Any difference in system hardware or software design or configuration may affect actual performance. Buyers should consult other sources of information to evaluate the performance of systems or components they are considering purchasing. For more information on performance tests and on the performance of Intel products, visit www.intel.com/performance/resources/limits.htm or call (U.S.) 800-628-8686 or 916-356-3104.

Configuration Details:

(2) World record claims based on comparison using published results on quad processor systems based on x86 architecture.

SPECint_rate_base2006 result details: Quad-Core Intel(R) Xeon(R) Processor X7350 based platform details: IBM(1) System x3850 M2 Server platform with four Quad-Core Intel(R) Xeon(R) processors X7350 2.93GHz, 2x4MB L2 Cache, 16 x 4GB DDR2-PC5300, 64-Bit SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server 10 SP1 Kernel linux, Intel C++ Compiler for Linux32 and Linux64 Version 10.1 Build 20070725. Results submitted to www.spec.org as of Sept 4th 2007 at 184. Greater than 2X performance improvement claim based on comparing this result to best published previous generation result of 75.5 at http://www.spec.org/cpu2006/ results/res2007q2/cpu2006-20070402-00725.html (Due to its length, this URL may need to be copied/pasted into your Internet browser's address field. Remove the extra space if one exists.)

SPECint_rate2006 result details: Lenovo(1) R630 G7 platform with four Quad-Core Intel(R) Xeon(R) processors X7350 2.93GHz, 2x4MB L2 Cache, 16GB Memory 64-Bit SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server 10 SP1 Kernel Intel C++ Compiler for Linux32 and Linux64 Version 10.1 Build 20070725. Results submitted to www.spec.org as of Sept 4 2007 at 214.

3x Performance Per Watt Claim: Based on SPECint_rate_base2006 performance/watt result published by Principled Technologies at http://principledtechnologies.com/clients/reports/Intel/E7340SPEC int0907.pdf as of Sept. 5, 2007 comparing Quad-Core Intel(R) Xeon(R) processor E7340 2.40GHz and Dual-Core Intel Xeon Processor 7140M based server platforms. Perf/Watt measured at (3.09x) (Due to its length, the above URL may need to be copied/pasted into your Internet browser's address field. Remove the extra space if one exists.)

167% Virtualiztion improvement claim: Based on vConsolidate benchmark result comparing Quad-Core Intel(R) Xeon(R) processor X7350 2.93GHz and Dual-Core Intel Xeon Processor 7140M based server platforms using Virtual Iron 4.0 software. Performance improvement measured at 167% (2.67x).

TPC-C result details: HP ProLiant DL580 G5 platform with four Quad-Core Intel(R) Xeon(R) Processor X7350 2.93GHz, 2x4MB L2 Cache, 128GB (32x4GB) Memory, Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Enterprise x64 Edition, Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Enterprise x64 Edition. Result submitted to www.tpc.org as of Sept. 5, 2007 at 407,079 tpmC and $1.71/tpmC.

VMmark score of 11.54 using the VMmark benchmark - VMmark result based on benchmark result published by HP at www.vmware.com as of Sept 5, 2007

SAP-SD result details: HP ProLiant(1) DL580 G5 platform with four Quad-Core Intel(R) Xeon(R) processors X7350 2.93GHz, 64GB Memory, Windows Server 2003, Database SQL Server 2005, SAP ECC Release 6.0. Result submitted to www.sap.com as of Sept. 5, 2007 at 3,705 SD users.

SAP-SD result details on Blade Server: HP ProLiant(1) BL680c G5 platform with four Quad-Core Intel(R) Xeon(R) processors E7340 2.40GHz, 64GB Memory, Windows Server 2003, Database SQL Server 2005, SAP ECC Release 6.0. Result submitted to www.sap.com as of Sept. 5, 2007 at 3,500 SD users.

SPECjbb2005 result details: Fujitsu Siemens(1) PRIMERGY RX600 S4 platform with four Quad-Core Intel(R) Xeon(R) processors X7350 2.93GHz, 2x4MB L2 Cache, 64GB Memory (16x4GB), Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Enterprise x64 Edition SP1, BEA JRockit(R) 6.0 P27.4.0 (build P27.4.0-3-86647-1.6.0_02-20070801-1931-windows-x86_64). Result submitted to www.spec.org for review as of Sept. 5, 2007 at 437,412 bops and 54,677 bops/JVM.

SPECWeb2005 result details: HP ProLiant(1) DL580 G5 with four Quad-Core Intel(R) Xeon(R) Processor X7350 2.93GHz, 2x4MB L2 Cache, 64GB (16x4GB) FBDimm Memory, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Rock Web Server. Result submitted to www.spec.org for review as of Sept. 5, 2007 at 30,261.

Intel does not control or audit the design or implementation of third party benchmarks or Web sites referenced in this document. Intel encourages all of its customers to visit the referenced Web sites or others where similar performance benchmarks are reported and confirm whether the referenced benchmarks are accurate and reflect performance of systems available for purchase.

Intel(R) Virtualization Technology requires a computer system with an enabled Intel(R) processor, BIOS, virtual machine monitor (VMM) and, for some uses, certain computer system software enabled for it. Functionality, performance or other benefits will vary depending on hardware and software configurations and may require a BIOS update. Software applications may not be compatible with all operating systems. Please check with your application vendor.

Source: Intel Corporation

Released Sep 6, 2007 • 12:00 AM EDT