Intel updated its socket LGA-1366 Xeon processor portfolio with the W3565. Based on the Nehalem architecture, this quad-core processor is made for single-socket servers and workstations. It has near-identical specifications to the consumer-grade Core i7 960, in having a clock speed of 3.20 GHz (24 x 133 MHz), 8 MB of L3 cache, and a QuickPath Interconnect (QPI) speed of 4.8 GT/s. The QPI speed is perhaps the only thing that differentiates it from the W3570, which has the same clock speed, albeit a QPI speed of 6.4 GT/s. This one specification makes for a large price difference. While the new W3565 is priced at $562, the W3570 is priced at $999. With the introduction of the new processor, Intel is set to retire the 2.93 GHz W3540, and 3.06 GHz W3550.

ASUS, in collaboration with NVIDIA and the National Chao Tung University of Taiwan, has introduced the ESC 1000 desktop-sized supercomputer, that harnesses the power of GPGPU, to give out 1.1 TFLOPs of computational power. Enclosed in a 445 x 217.5 x 545 mm chassis (the size of tower server/workstation chassis,) is a system powered by an Intel Xeon W3580 "Nehalem" 3.33 GHz processor, aided by 24 GB of system memory. As many as three NVIDIA Tesla c1060 GPGPU cards are installed, with an NVIDIA Quadro FX 5800 handing graphics. These emphasize that the system is meant for highly complex visual computing, such as in the fields of highly complex modeling, and scientific research. The pricing and availability of the ESC 1000 is not known as yet.

Intel Corporation today reported third-quarter revenue of $9.4 billion. The company reported operating income of $2.6 billion, net income of $1.9 billion and earnings per share (EPS) of 33 cents.

"Intel's strong third-quarter results underscore that computing is essential to people's lives, proving the importance of technology innovation in leading an economic recovery," said Paul Otellini, Intel president and CEO. "This momentum in the current economic climate, plus our product leadership, gives us confidence about our business prospects going forward. As we look ahead, Intel's game-changing 32nm process technology will usher in another wave of innovation from new, powerful Intel Xeon server platforms to high-performance Intel Core processors to low-power Intel Atom processors."

Highlights include:

• Third-Quarter Revenue $9.4 Billion, Strongest Second-to-Third-Quarter Growth in over 30 years
• Gross Margin 58 Percent, Up 7 Points Sequentially
• Operating Income $2.6 Billion
• Net Income $1.9 Billion
• EPS 33 Cents

To read the complete earnings release, visit this page.

The Dutch techsite tweakers.net set a new world record for 3Dmark03. While the old record (180,349) was set using four 4890s the new record uses only three 5870s and a Xeon W3540 clocked at 5231 MHz. The 5870s ran at 1200 MHz with only slightly overclocked memory at 4900 MHz.

ASUS today announced the launch of its new RS300-E6 Series servers featuring the Intel 3420 PCH chipset and Intel Xeon 3400 Series Processors. With dual or quad core processor configurations, the RS300-E6 Series can scale up performance immediately to support high-volume workloads. Comprising the RS300-E6/PS2 and RS300-E6/PS4 models, the series comes in a 1U form factor housing a single-package processor. Additionally, with its expansion options, the series provides exceptional upgrade capabilities.

Intel Corporation today disclosed new information about next-generation Intel Xeon processors - codenamed "Jasper Forest" - for communications and storage applications, due in early 2010. With Jasper Forest, Intel engineers have, for the first time, integrated PCI Express (PCIe) in a dual-processing Xeon processor, which greatly facilitates dense storage and communications solutions such as IPTV, VoIP, NAS, SAN and wireless radio network controllers.

Jasper Forest maintains the outstanding performance of Intel architecture (Nehalem), while lowering system power consumption by 27 watts when compared to the Intel Xeon 5500 series processors. The dual-processing solution integrates two Jasper Forest processors with 16 PCIe Generation 2.0 lanes each and is paired with the Intel 3420 chipset platform controller hub. This integration of the I/O hub via PCIe enables significant power and space savings, resulting in one of the highest performance-per-watt Intel Xeon chips ever.

Intel Corporation introduced several high-performance desktop and server processors today, bringing the next level of integration and intelligence to computers. The new Intel Core i5 processor family, two new Intel Core i7 processors and the Intel Xeon processor 3400 series bring Intel's latest Nehalem microarchitecture to mainstream desktop and entry server markets.

Intel expanded its portfolio of Xeon enterprise processors with four new models: the dual-socket W5590, L5530, and single-socket W3580 and W3550. With this batch of releases, Intel introduces 3.33 GHz Xeon models. To begin with, W5590 comes with a clock speed of 3.33 GHz, and Quickpath Interconnect speed of 6.4 GT/s. It features 8 MB of L3 cache to aid its four HyperThreading-enabled cores. This model is trailed by the single-socket W3580 that carries the same specs of 3.33 GHz core speed, 8 MB L3 cache, and HyperThreading enabled. Another single-socket model, W3550, is clocked at 3.06 GHz. It has a narrower 4.8 GT/s QPI speed, 8 MB L3 cache, HyperThreading enabled. All these chips have their TDP rated at 130W. Finally, there's the low-wattage L5530. This dual-socket chip is clocked at 2.40 GHz, QPI speed of 5.83 GT/s, 8 MB L3 cache, and TDP rating of a mere 60W.

Intel's upcoming processor and compatible platform launch schedule gained some clarity today with tentative launch dates and time-frames surfacing from industry sources. Highlights on the client front include:

• Desktop platform initially based on Lynnfield quad-core processor and P55 chipset to be out between September 8~11
• Three recently detailed mobile quad-core processor models based on the Clarksfield core will be announced towards the end of September or early October
• Around the same time as above, Intel will release two new budget chips for its CULV platform, called Celeron SU2300 and Celeron 743. Expect these to be toned-down variants of the existing Core 2 CULV chips

Noctua today presented two new additions to its DX series of quiet Intel Xeon CPU coolers: Now compatible with Intel's latest LGA1366 based Xeon 5500 (Nehalem EP) processors, the new NH-U12DX 1366 and NH-U9DX 1366 are true drop-in replacements for standard Intel coolers and make it easier than ever before to significantly reduce the noise emission of high-end workstations and severs.

ASUS, the leading producer of servers and workstations, recently announced the availability of its latest 5U pedestal and rack-mountable servers and workstations-the ASUS TS700-E6/RS8 and TS500-E6/PS4. Both are based on Dual and Quad-Core Intel Xeon Processor 5500 series platforms with DDR3 memory and PCIe 2.0 support. They also feature additional expansion slots which can also be used for a dedicated graphics card, a MIO network card and other expansion options for personal workstation use-providing customers with high flexibility, reliability, storage capacity and expandability.

Water-cooling specialist Swiftech expanded its lineup with the Apogee GTZ Ci7 CPU water block. From its name, one can infer that it specifically supports the Intel LGA-1366 socket (Core i7 and Xeon 5500 series). The frame that holds the block has the appropriate mount holes for LGA-1366. A bolt-through retention mechanism is bundled. The block itself is near-identical in specifications to the original Apogee GTZ. The CPU copper contact base is lapped, and has a matrix of 225 micron copper pins to boost surface area of heat dissipation. The housing is Delrin-made. Options for 1/2" and 3/8" hose barbs are provided. A tube of Arctic Silver Ceramique is bundled. It is priced at US $69.99.

ASUS, a leading producer of innovative server and workstation solutions, today announced three cutting-edge solutions designed to address the specific needs of SOHO and Business Enterprises. First in the line-up is the ASUS P6T7 WS SuperComputer motherboard, which provides users with sublime graphics capabilities and flexible high speed data input/output. Next is the ASUS RS700D-E6 Duo Nodes 1U Server, which features independent power supplies for superb reliability-giving business owners complete peace of mind-while offering exceptional space savings in the form of 4 + 4 hot-swappable 2.5-inch SATA/SAS hard disk drives. Finally, the ASUS Z8NA-D6 is the world's first slim dual processor server and workstation motherboard, making it the best workstation foundation for all forms of businesses.

Intel Corporation today previewed a new Intel Xeon processor codenamed "Nehalem-EX." The processor will be at the heart of the next generation of intelligent and expandable high-end Intel server platforms, which will deliver a number of new technical advancements and boost enterprise computing performance.

In production later this year, the Nehalem-EX processor will feature up to eight cores inside a single chip supporting 16 threads and 24MB of cache. Its performance increase will be dramatic, posting the highest-ever jump from a previous generation processor.

Having successfully established the Nehalem architecture-derived Core i7 series as the industry's fastest consumer processors available, and recently propagating the architecture to two-socket Xeon series for servers and high-end workstations, Intel is set to push up parallelism two-fold with the Nehalem-EX 8-core enterprise processor. The company will detail this new line of chips next week, although a commercial-launch can be expected only in late 2009 or early 2010.

The new chip will succeed the company's own Xeon E7000 "Dunnington" series 6-core processors, for having the highest available parallelism per socket. The 8 physical x86-64 processing cores will further feature HyperThreading technology, sending the logical-processor count to 16 threads per socket. Each processor packs 2.3 billion transistors. The processor will further be designed for systems with more than two sockets per board. Currently although server-builders sell 1U and 2U servers with more than two Nehalem quad-core processors, the system is designed by using two (or more) two-socket mainboards interconnected using Infiniband. The announcement will be made on May 26, in an address headed by Boyd Davis, Intel's general manager of Server Platforms Marketing Group.

Soon after becoming the first to be out with a portable desktop alternative featuring the Intel Core i7 processor, SmoothCreations dished out another of its kind, this time a portable workstation named Bulldozer. The company is looking to target two classes of consumers with this product: gamers, and graphics professionals, who will take advantage of its hardware for high-definition gaming or CAM/CAE/CAD, medical imaging, forensics, government or military use. The applications are broad thanks to the hardware, which just might come at the expense of a little portability.

The Bulldozer features a 17-inch screen with a native resolution of 1900x1200 pixels. Under its hood is a Core i7 (models 940 or 965 XE) or Xeon X5580 processor. Up to 16 GB of memory can be opted for, along with up to 1.5 TB of storage thanks to three SATA HDD bays. A Blu-Ray combo drive provides removable storage. Connectivity options include WiFi, Gigabit Ethernet, and Bluetooth 2.0. Graphics is care of NVIDIA Quadro FX 3700 with 1 GB of memory. Depending on the application, 64-bit Windows XP, Windows Vista, or RedHat Linux could be opted for. Its pricing is not known.

GeIL wants to be the first manufacturer touting the term "hexa-channel" (6-channel) DDR3 memory. While machine architectures using 6-channels (384-bit wide) memory interfaces don't exist, dual-Nehalem Xeon machines use two triple-channel memory arrays. It's a play of the word "6-channels" there. In any case, GeIL is now selling DDR3 memory in kits of six modules. Its lineup spans across three of its main memory product-lines: Value, Ultra, and Gaming series. The kits are available in a variety of configurations that include specified DRAM speeds, and timings, as listed by the table below. The kits come backed by the company's lifetime warranty.

AMD finally stepped out of its shell after Intel's launch of its newest line of Xeon processors based on the Nehalem architecture. In an interview with TechPulse 360, AMD's Pat Patla and John Fruehe took on Intel's recent marketing drive for Nehalem Xeon products. The conversation revolved mainly around the issues of platform costs, and the features the new Xeon processors introduce (or reintroduce) to the server/enterprise computing industry, namely the company's proprietary FSB-replacement, QuickPath Interconnect, and HyperThreading.

The two first took on Intel's marketing, particularly on its material that said that the slowest Nehalem Xeon chip was faster than the fastest Opteron chip, saying that Intel's statements weren't backed by real figures. The two also alleged that Intel's server platform was too expensive and delivered lesser value in an ailing state of the economy. Perhaps the most audacious statement from AMD since the somewhat famous "only real men have fabs" statement by Jerry Sanders III, came from this interview, where AMD responded to a question on HyperThreading saying that "real men use real cores". "We've got real cores across our products. HyperThreading is basically designed to act like a core except that it only gives 10 to 15 percent performance bump for real applications workload." they said. Is AMD making a real point, or fighting fire...erm marketing with marketing? Find out in this interview.

Our friends at TCMagazine have just posted an updated chart of Intel's Core 2 and Xeon processors that reveal two new CPUs, and some interesting price reductions. The new socket LGA775 Core 2 Quad Q8400 and Q8400S processors are both made using 45 nm technology, feature a frequency of 2.66 GHz, a 1333 MHz FSB and 4 MB of L2 cache. The S model has a TDP of 65W while the normal Q8400 has 95W TDP. Both processors cost $183 and $245 respectively.

Micron Technology, today announced that its suite of DDR3 server memory modules are validated with Intel's next-generation Intel Xeon processor chips. Micron's validated 1, 2, 4 and 8-gigabyte (GB) DDR3 modules are performance-driven, delivering speeds of 1066 megabits per second (Mb/s) and 1333 Mb/s, greatly increasing server throughput. Additionally, Lexar Media, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Micron, has validated its corresponding Crucial-branded modules, leveraging Micron's award-winning DDR3 memory.

Thanks to the addition of the new Quad-core Intel Nehalem Xeon processors series 5500, the updated Xserve announced today delivers up to twice the performance of the previous system. For those not familiar with the term Xserve, this is the name of Apple's first 1U rackmount line of servers. It was first introduced in 2002, and thanks to this update now it is available with up to two 2.93 GHz Intel Xeon processors, up to 3 TB of hot-plug internal storage using various hard drive modules and up to 32 GB of 1066 MHz DDR3 ECC memory on 8 slots. Starting at $2,999, Xserve includes an unlimited client license for Mac OS X Server version 10.5 Leopard and enough power to become your file or web server. For the full tech specs, please click here.

Super Micro Computer, Inc., a leader in application-optimized, high-performance server solutions, today launched a comprehensive new line of server and workstation solutions specially designed to support the Intel Xeon Processor 5500 series (formerly codenamed Nehalem). Supermicro has started shipping its new 2U Twin2 ("Twin Squared" with four hot-pluggable DP nodes), newly invented Twin GPU 1U server/workstation, the award-winning 1U Twin, SuperBlade, flexible Universal I/O (UIO) server, SAS2 storage systems, as well as its strong line of traditional application-optimized server solutions. Featuring the highest efficiency in the industry power supplies (93%+), cooling subsystems and motherboard designs, Supermicro solutions set a new record for the best performance-per-watt (375 GFLOPS/kW) and also deliver the best performance-per-dollar and performance-per-square-foot.

Based on the company's latest application-optimized Server Building Block architectures, Supermicro maximizes the new Nehalem technology, which includes QPI (Intel QuickPath Interconnect) for up to 6.4GT/s, Integrated DDR3 Memory Controller, multiple power envelops, and Intel Turbo Boost Technology, to provide the industry's highest performing and most optimized new generation server solutions.

Intel Corporation introduced 17 enterprise-class processors today, led by the Intel Xeon processor 5500 series. They are Intel's most revolutionary server processors since addressing the market with the Intel Pentium Pro processor almost 15 years ago.
The new enterprise-class chips can automatically adjust to specified energy usage levels, and speed data center transactions and customer database queries. They also will play a key role in scientific discoveries by researchers who use supercomputers as their foundation for research, all whilst delivering great energy efficiency for reduced electricity costs.

Kingston Technology Company, Inc., the independent world leader in memory products, today announced it is shipping both 1333- and 1066MHz DDR3 server memory modules validated by Intel for use on its Xeon processor-based motherboards. Kingston's registered ECC server DIMMs and unbuffered ECC DIMMs are optimized to take advantage of the triple-channel architecture for Intel's newest server platforms using the new Nehalem-based Xeon processors.

The 1333- and 1066MHz DDR3 server modules are available immediately. Kingston server memory is backed by a lifetime warranty and free, 24/7 technical support. For more detailed information visit www.kingston.com. For Intel validation information visit this page.

Intel expanded its enterprise-grade Xeon processor lineup with three new models under the Xeon UP series. Built on the 45 nm High-K process, at least two of these new chips boast of high energy efficiency. First up, is the X3380 quad-core chip that has 12 MB of L2 cache, 1333 MHz FSB, and 3.16 GHz of clock speed. Its TDP is rated at 95 W.

The second chip introduced, the L3360 quad-core runs at 2.83 GHz, 1333 MHz FSB, 12 MB of cache, but a reduced TDP rating at 65 W. Lastly, a high-speed yet energy-efficient L3110 dual-core chip runs at 3.00 GHz, comes with 6 MB of cache and a 1333 MHz FSB, with its TDP rated at 45 W. The X3380, L3360 and L3110 are priced at US $530, $369 and $224 respectively, in 1000-unit tray quantities. Intel also introduced the single-core 1.6 GHz Atom Z530 processor that sells for around $70 each, in bulk.