Intel Drives Xeon Servers Toward Truland

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SAN FRANCISCO — Intel is rounding out its
single-core 64-bit Xeon processor family as it directs future
product lines toward a dual-core architecture.

The chipmaker announced five new Xeon chips for multi-processor
servers under its Truland group of cores and chipsets. “Think Centrino brand for Xeon MP,” Carol Barrett, Intel director for enterprise
platforms, said.

The latest Xeon processors are the last step on Intel’s roadmap for single-core multi-processor configurations. Intel and rival AMD have published roadmaps that show both companies switching to
an exclusive dual-core architecture for client PCs and enterprise
servers in 2006.

The new Truland line is made up of Xeon processors formerly known as
Potomac and Cranford and will power Intel’s E8500 chipsets code-named
Twin Castle. The components are sold separately, but Intel will end- of-life its current 32-bit Gallatin Xeon chips.

“This is the completion of the 64-bit offerings through the Xeon MP
space,” Pat Gelsinger, senior vice president at Intel, said during a
press briefing here. Gelsinger was one of the original architects of the
Pentium Pro , which is celebrating its tenth
anniversary. “We have increased sets of features every year and now
literally much of the world operates on this platform that was made 10
years ago.”

The Truland platform also includes a faster system bus, support for
PCI Express and DDR2-400 memory. The
chips will also support demand-based switching with enhanced Intel
SpeedStep technology.

Other computer makers and software vendors are already expressing
support for Intel’s new Xeon family. Dell got the jump on its competition with the new Intel processors. Last week the computer maker said it would use the new Intel chips new in its latest PowerEdge 6800 and PowerEdge 6850 servers. IBM, HP, Dell, Unisys and Microsoft were among the other top-tier vendors expressing full support for Truland.

Intel said the three chips formerly known as Potomac run at speeds between 3.33 GHz with 8MB of a third-level “L3” cache memory reservoir. There is also a less powerful 2.83 GHz version with 4 MB of L3 cache.

There is a huge price gap between the top and middle of
the road Potomac chips. The high-end sells for $3692 in mass quantities.
The next fastest processor in this class runs at 3.00 GHz for $1980 –
nearly 70 percent of the high-end model.

With a mere 1 MB of L2 cache, Intel is slashing the price to $963 for
its 3.66 GHz chip previously known as Cranford. A 3.16 GHz version in
bulk orders goes for $722.

“Believe me, that is a bargain,” Gelsinger said. “The benefit is a
performance enhancement that financial services and telcos are asking
for. This is fairly consistent with current pricing models.”

Gelsinger also said that its future dual-core package codenamed
Paxville will be socket-compatible with the Truland configurations.

But the chips eat up more power than their AMD Opteron counterparts.
Gelsinger said the Truland family runs at about 110 watts per chip. The
AMD dual-core product is expected to consume 95 watts, which includes the I/O and memory, as opposed to 110 watts for a single core chip plus another 20 watts power consumption for the I/O and memory.

In a related story, Intel consolidated its Intel Software Network to give developers one place to go for all of their code needs.

The initial rollout includes tools, tips and training for software
developers grappling with multi-core architectures, 64-bit extensions, occasionally connected mobile applications, and advanced system controllers.