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Intel Xeon 7400 Series Wafer  (Source: Intel)
IBM servers using the processors break benchmark records

Intel announced its six-core 45nm Intel Xeon Processor 7400 Series products this week. The new series will feature up to six-cores on a single chip with 16MB of shared cache. The processors are built for demanding enterprise applications needing significant processing power like virtualized applications, data workloads, business intelligence and more.

According to Intel, some applications will see almost 50% performance increase. Server platforms using the new 7400 series processors will be able to scale to up to 16 processor sockets making servers with up to 96 cores available.

Tom Kilron, Intel VP and general manager of the Digital Enterprise Group said in a statement, "The arrival of these processors extends Intel's lead in the high-end server segment. This new processor series helps IT manage increasingly complex enterprise server environments, providing a great opportunity to boost the scalable performance of multi-threaded applications within a stable platform infrastructure. With new features such as additional cores, large shared caches and advanced virtualization technologies, the Xeon® 7400 series delivers record-breaking performance that will lead enterprises into the next wave of virtualization deployments."

Intel reports that systems using the new processors have set records on four-socket and eight-socket industry benchmarks. IBM set a record of 1.2 million tpmC result on an eight-socket System x3950 M2 server. It also set a record with a four-socket server System x3850 M2 of 684,508 tpmC on the TPC*-C benchmark.

IBM announced its servers based on the new CPUs the same day Intel announced the CPUs. The servers IBM used to set the previously mentioned records -- the System X3950 M2 -- is the first single system to break the 1 million transactions per minute barrier on the TPc-C benchmark. The system offers record setting performance, but still reduces the overall power consumption by 37%.

IBM's VP of System x, James Northington said in a statement, " As the market leader in high-end x86 servers and the only vendor to design its own chip set for Intel-based servers, IBM is addressing the performance needs of our clients and the growing demand for scale up x86 servers. The new System x servers announced today provide the innovation our x86 clients have come to expect, with better performance and power usage than our competitors' offerings."

IBM System x3850 M2 and x3950 systems will be available in September at $10,389 and $13,389 respectively. Intel isn’t only improving on its server CPUs; roadmaps show that the firm's next generation Atom processors will be available in Q3 of 2009. Intel continues to rely heavily on both server and low-cost netbook CPUs in the face of weakening consumer spending on technology products.



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Designed in India
By Trisagion on 9/17/2008 10:50:52 AM , Rating: 5
The article fails to mention that the Dunnington CPU is the first processor completely designed by Intel India.




RE: Designed in India
By inperfectdarkness on 9/17/08, Rating: -1
RE: Designed in India
By Gzus666 on 9/17/2008 10:57:58 AM , Rating: 5
You game with server processors? Seems like quite a hefty sum to pay to play a game.


RE: Designed in India
By kickwormjoe on 9/17/2008 11:19:20 AM , Rating: 5
Hefty? A lot of Xeon processors are in the $200-$300 range. Some people pay twice that on the graphics card alone.


RE: Designed in India
By Gzus666 on 9/17/2008 11:24:34 AM , Rating: 2
I believe you forgot the rest of the server.


RE: Designed in India
By kickwormjoe on 9/17/2008 11:47:24 AM , Rating: 2
You don't have to put the Xeon in a "server".

But yeah, quad-cores really don't do much in terms of gaming performance.


RE: Designed in India
By Gzus666 on 9/17/2008 12:01:54 PM , Rating: 1
A server can be anything, but if you use a specific processor, in this case a server processor, you have to use a server motherboard with matching sockets (771 for the Xeon before, not sure what it will be), which is way more expensive, and doesn't offer all the features you need without spending a lot. You have to use special RAM as well, as any server board I have ever seen uses buffered RAM. Most server boards are multi-processor, especially the ones they are talking about here, which means you have to buy multiple chips, $$$$$.


RE: Designed in India
By kickwormjoe on 9/17/2008 12:21:37 PM , Rating: 3
Here's a Xeon that people have been using w/ non-server motherboards:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...

Read some of the reviews and you'll see why some people go w/ Xeons over the Core 2 Duo's.


RE: Designed in India
By jonmcc33 on 9/17/2008 12:38:52 PM , Rating: 1
Dual Xeon LGA771 motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...

2GB FB-DIMM DDR2-667: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...

Last time I checked, desktop motherboards can be as high as $300 if not more. High speed DDR3 memory is far more expensive than FB-DIMMs as well.

Many dual socket motherboards support a single installed processor as long as a particular socket has a CPU in it.

You still don't know what you're talking about. Might want to go back to computer hardware for kids if I were you.


RE: Designed in India
By Gzus666 on 9/17/2008 12:46:08 PM , Rating: 2
"...or that adding two more cores above a quad core isn't going to effect my gaming performance worth a hill of beans."

The above 6 core Xeon, which he was referring to for his gaming, is quite expensive. In fact, they say the beginning server setup costs around $10k. This is what he was referring to, that is what I responded to, suck it.

As for the rest, understand it can be done, but if you really want to use server equipment, why just put one processor in there?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...

Faster desktop RAM with tighter timings for about half the price. I would think paying double for something slower would turn people off, but maybe I should go back to "computer hardware for kids" as you say. Maybe you should go back to numbers 101, as one of those numbers is bigger than the other, can you figure it out?


RE: Designed in India
By invidious on 9/17/2008 1:30:51 PM , Rating: 3
Please feel free to have your epeen war about technicalities elsewhere, it is not appreciated. There is need to derail the thread with tangential arguments and certainly no need to get personal about it.

6 cores is much better than 4 for servers, for home PCs it is also better but by less of a margin. So in terms of bang for your buck it probably wont be the best option for gaming, but that depends on retail pricing. In terms of top of the line there is no reason a server CPU cant be the best home PC CPU, but it certainly is not implicit that it will be.


RE: Designed in India
By rbfowler9lfc on 9/17/2008 4:17:32 PM , Rating: 2
Not that expensive, build a server around a SC5295 chassis, a S3210xxxx board and a X33xx processor, and you have a small, cheap server that costs as little as a decent desktop nowadays.

Of course you won't be buying a six-core server CPU just to play Crysis...


RE: Designed in India
By Zandros on 9/17/2008 11:32:08 AM , Rating: 2
I don't believe the MP processors are in that price range, the Dunnington six-cores start at $2301 in quantities of 1000.


RE: Designed in India
By kickwormjoe on 9/17/2008 11:50:30 AM , Rating: 2
I was talking about the entry-level Xeons. I've seen a lot of people use them for their gaming machines.


RE: Designed in India
By Gzus666 on 9/17/2008 12:10:17 PM , Rating: 1
Then you see a lot of idiots. First off, none of the server boards in the low price range support DDR3, or anything higher than 667 with their buffered RAM. Rarely do any of them have support for SLI/Crossfire, so there goes any serious gamer support. Also, most of them seem to only have the slower standard of PCI-E support, since they aren't meant for gaming. Seems like a normal gaming setup would be far cheaper, and superior, almost like they made servers for a purpose, and gaming hardware for a purpose.


RE: Designed in India
By headbox on 9/17/2008 12:17:20 PM , Rating: 2
Hey dum-dum, there are 775 quad core Xeons that work with any Core 2 Quad mainboard.

Don't write a paragraph lecture slamming someone when you're the idiot.


RE: Designed in India
By Gzus666 on 9/17/2008 12:24:07 PM , Rating: 2
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...

Which you end up paying more for the same thing. That makes good horse sense. Also, the server processor has no warranty listed, the desktop version does, that would make me worry a bit.


RE: Designed in India
By Vinnybcfc on 9/17/2008 12:28:39 PM , Rating: 2
The server versions have warranty

The server versions have been a touch cheaper in the past at odd times

The server versions sometimes have higher cache over a standard model

Some server versions ran on a lower voltage - has probably changed again now

At one time there were some good reasons to pick a Core 2 Zeon 775 but the advantages have gone away