How times change. Intel has a pair of new Xeon processors but it’s not touting the performance, speed, or cores. Instead, it’s bragging about how little power the processors consume.
The new quad-core Xeon L5310 and L5320 processors run at 1.60 and 1.86Ghz, respectively, and consume just 50 watts, a considerable drop over Intel’s current 80 and 120 watt quad core offerings.
Intel has introduced 11 server, workstation and desktop PC quad-core processors since November and is claiming a $6,000 lifetime savings when consolidating eight Pentium III servers onto a single quad core processor.
The L5310 and L5320 feature 8 megabytes (MB) of on die cache for faster memory data communication and run on dedicated 1066 MHz front side buses. In 1,000 unit quantities the L5320 is priced at $519 and the L5310 at $455.
Intel’s nemesis AMD was quick to respond, claiming it’s still the price per watt leader. “Perhaps the best proof of this fact is that when Intel talks about its PPW gains, it does so by comparing its new products to its previous products, not against those of AMD, something that the company hasn’t been shy about lately,” said AMD in a statement following the Intel news.
These processors can be coupled with Intel’s existing “Bensley” server platform and have been designed to be swappable with the existing dual-core and quad-core Intel Xeon processor families.
Intel expects servers based on these new processors will be available in the coming months from Dell, HP, IBM, Acer, Digital Henge, Fujitsu Siemens, HCL, Rackable Systems, Samsung, Verari, Wipro and other companies.