Since the release of Woodcrest earlier this year, Intel has been resurgent in the dual processor server market. In earlier articles we explored both the performance and power characteristics of Woodcrest, and in each case it was a substantial improvement over the Dempsey microprocessor. More to the point, Woodcrest is clearly a very potent competitor and has helped Intel retake marketshare lost to AMD.

As part of their strategy to regain momentum in the server market, Intel has decided to press home their advantage by aggressively moving to a four core solution as soon as possible. Clovertown is the first x86 four core MPU and a socket compatible upgrade for platforms based on the Blackford chipset, including both Woodcrest and Dempsey. Rather than designing a four core microprocessor implemented in a single die, Intel opted to package together a pair of processors to create Clovertown. The changes required were largely outside of the die of the microprocessor, which makes a new version both quick to release and relatively inexpensive. The end result is the third in a series of substantial performance improvements for server buyers in 2006.

Pricing, performance and timing play a crucial role in what easily has become the largest chip launch of Q4'06.  Read on for benchmarks and analysis.