nehalem-ex
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Intel plans to stuff more than 8 cores, extra speed into 2011 server chips
Yeah yeah, "more cores and faster speeds," you've heard it all before right? That'd be our reaction too if we weren't talking about the successor to the Nehalem-Ex, Intel's most gruesomely overpowered chip to date. Launched under the Xeon 7500 branding in March, it represents Intel's single biggest generational leap so far, and with its eight cores, sixteen threads, and 24MB of shared onboard cache, you could probably see why. Time waits for no CPU though, and Intel's planned 32nm Westmere-Ex successor will move things forward with an unspecified increase in both core count (speculated to be jumping up to 12) and operating frequencies, while keeping within the same power envelope. Given the current 2.26GHz default speed and 2.66GHz Turbo Boost option of the 7500, that means we're probably looking at a 2.4GHz to 2.5GHz 12-core, hyper-threaded processor, scheduled to land at some point next year. Time to make some apps that can use all that parallel processing power, nay?
Intel readies 8-core Nehalem-Ex processors for a March launch
Intel's current generation of Xeon processors already represents some of the fastest silicon you can buy, and yet the company's forthcoming Nehalem-Ex-based Xeons are being touted as the single greatest generational jump in its history. To achieve that, Intel has strapped eight cores into each CPU, with a pair of threads per core and 24MB of shared cache, along with integrated quad-channel memory controllers, Turbo Boost, and the pretty awesome ability to scale up to eight sockets -- meaning you could have 64 processing cores in the same rig. Don't even ask whether these chips can run Crysis 2, they'll probably be showing up in the machines that are making the game... and maybe yours, provided you have the cash to splash later this month.
Intel's new Nehalem-EX CPUs rock servers with eight cores, 16 threads, infinite sex appeal
What's that, you have an array of six-core CPUs in your rack? That is so last year. You're going to feel pretty foolish when all the cool admins start popping eight-core chips up in their closets this fall. That's the number on offer in Intel's latest, the Nehalem-EX. It's an evolution of the architecture that some of you may be spinning in your Core i7 machines, but boosted to support up to 16 threads and 24MB of cache. 2.3 billion transistors make the magic happen here, and Intel is pledging a nine-times improvement in memory bandwidth over the Xeon 7400. Chips are set to start hitting sockets sometime later this year, and while nobody's talking prices, staying hip in the enterprise server CPU crowd doesn't come cheap.
