Intel Announces Super Westmere-EX for Servers
by Ian Cutress on May 10, 2010 5:15 PM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
The newest product to be thrusted into Intel's server arsenal will be called Westmere-EX, and is set to directly compete with AMD's Mangy-Cours server chip which features 12 cores, and AMD's future Bulldozer architecture.
In a webcast speech, Stephen Smith, vice president/director of PC client operations and enabling at Intel, announced the upcoming Nehalem-EX refresh. The current EX processors, Nehalem-EX, are available under the Xeon 6500/7500 brands and were introduced in March. Featuring up to 8 cores and 16 threads on a 45nm fab, they are Intel's fastest processors to date. However, the new Westmere-EX processors are manufactured using the 32nm process, allowing faster clock speeds and more cores compared to Nehalem-EX within the same power envelope.
Smith has said that Westmere-EX (Expandable Server) will be targeted at servers with four or more sockets; Intel's Westmere-EP (Efficient Performance) processors, released in March, were aimed at one and two socket systems with up to six cores each and under the brand name Xeon 5600.
The number of cores and clocks speeds of the Westmere-EX were not disclosed, although the new processors will be the same socket as the Nehalem-EX. No release date was revealed either - Smith said "We have just launched Nehalem-EX, and these platforms typically have a ... two-plus year lifetime. We are well along in development and we are confident that we have a product that will give us a great performance boost. It will go into the same sockets, so the idea here is the platform is an investment that the OEMs have made".
Even though Nehalem-EX processors are available up to 8 cores/16 threads, speculation is rife as to the core count on Westmere-EX. With AMD hinting at the release of a 16 core product built on the 32nm process next year (code-named Interlagos), Intel would require a 12 core/24 thread Westmere-EX to stay ahead of the curve.
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classy - Monday, May 10, 2010 - link
What I find interesting is they are preparing for Bulldozer already. Sounds like they may have already got some hard info on what it may do.puffpio - Monday, May 10, 2010 - link
Is it really Mangy Cours? or Magny Cours? (it's named after the city in France, not a pun on dirty cores?)Casper42 - Monday, May 10, 2010 - link
Yes to City in France.AMD is/was naming processors after Cities that host F1 Racing events.
Barcelona, Shanghai, Magny Cours, etc.
Casper42 - Monday, May 10, 2010 - link
Its almost like why bother.Most large OEMs havent even shipped Nehalem-EX, why are they "announcing" Westmere-EX?
No Specs, Benchmarks, Dates, nothing?
Might as well launch Sandy Bridge right now on the desktop while they are at it. Might be out sooner than Westmere-EX.
stimudent - Monday, May 10, 2010 - link
Do these chips come with the same ethics violations programmed into the instruction sets that are also programmed into Intel's corporate culture?KaarlisK - Tuesday, May 11, 2010 - link
"The current EX processors, Nehalem-EX, are available under the Xeon 6500/7500 brands and were introduced in March. Featuring 6 cores and 12 threads on a 45nm fab, they are Intel's fastest processors to date."They actually have 4, 6 or 8 cores. At the end of the article the correct count is stated.
Rajinder Gill - Tuesday, May 11, 2010 - link
Thanks, fixed!IntelUser2000 - Tuesday, May 11, 2010 - link
(The title is kinda funny. What's "Super" about it? Can we get a "Normal" or "Extreme" Westmere-Ex please? :P)The core count on Westmere-EX is said to be 10.
ReaM - Tuesday, May 11, 2010 - link
I think AMD should have released 8 cores instead of 6.It would beat Intel lineup for the rest of the year. I wish I could buy 51% of AMD stock^^.
2011 does not look good for AMD. At least, we do already know how good intels 32nm is and by then it will be even better.
Griswold - Tuesday, May 11, 2010 - link
Read the article at all? AMD has 12 core opterons now. This is not about your puny desktop epeen needs. And I dont think that *you* in particular know jack about AMD and Intel in 2011...