Friday, January 30th 2009
Intel to Unveil Octo-Core Xeon Next Month
Sitting tight on the desktop and server performance thrones with the Core i7 and Xeon Dunnington series procesors, Intel is looking to carry on with its product launch-cycle with the introduction of octo-core (8 cores) enterprise processors later this year. The company is expected to detail the industry about this upcoming processor series as early as next month at the Solid State Circuits conference in San Fransisco between February 8 and 12.
The processor in question will be based on the Intel Nehalem architecture and will consist of eight x86 processing cores, a massive transistor-count of 2.3 billion, and will be built on the company's current 45nm manufacturing process. It will hold 24 MB of L3 cache, a quad-channel memory interface and QuickPath Interconnect system interface. Furthermore, it is aimed at quad-socket server platforms. Intel will keep this only upto a presentation level at the conference and not a launch. It is expected to start off with quad-core Xeon processors based on the new architecture later in this quarter.
Source:
TechConnect Magazine
The processor in question will be based on the Intel Nehalem architecture and will consist of eight x86 processing cores, a massive transistor-count of 2.3 billion, and will be built on the company's current 45nm manufacturing process. It will hold 24 MB of L3 cache, a quad-channel memory interface and QuickPath Interconnect system interface. Furthermore, it is aimed at quad-socket server platforms. Intel will keep this only upto a presentation level at the conference and not a launch. It is expected to start off with quad-core Xeon processors based on the new architecture later in this quarter.
25 Comments on Intel to Unveil Octo-Core Xeon Next Month
Not that it matters much to us, we won't buy quad socket stuff. And the dual socket boards use DDR3 so should actually have a lot of bandwidth due to NUMA.
Intel's CPUs are huge in comparison to AMDs.
AMD's literally cost less cause they use less silicon. So don't expect a simple price tag on the Intel Octo cores. (Especially since they can barely fit it onto their "socket". That little green PCB that they solder the die on) ... it can barely fit on that. AMD can fit up to 16 cores before it becomes an issue @ 45nm.
So I hope Intel comes up with a solution for their problem before AMD releases theirs.
Remember, AMD's PII has both DDR2 and DDR3 controllers and Intel's does not. Memory Controllers take up alot of space still. From Nordic Hardware-
"It's probably not a bad idea for AMD to take advantage of their relatively small core size. At 45nm it can cram two cores (with 256 kB L1 total) into 30mm2. A single Nehalem core with 256 kB L2 also occupies ~30 mm2. "
So... I wouldn't say that isn't true at all.
Only reason we're looking at 3 dual-quad boxes in the near future is for VMware High Availability. Each one with 32GB, 3TB storage, and two mid-range QC Xeons will end up around $4K. That probably wouldn't even buy TWO of these new OC Xeons, to help anyone with perspective on the price difference :D
Let's hope it is cooler and faster.
In short, FB-DIMM can do more with less. It won't be going anywhere any time soon. I can't see plain DIMMs being used when there's 8 or more slots. There's too many physical connections causing motherboards to get extremely expensive. FB-DIMM = more expensive memory, cheaper motherboard.
L3's have made a come back because the gap between DDR3 performance and L2 is so vast.