Intel has launched its first Nehalem-based Xeon chips for servers and workstations, bringing increased performance and greater power efficiency in the biggest overhaul of the Xeon platform for years. New chips offer greater memory, bandwidth and power efficient processing.

Nehalem architecture is a fundamental break from earlier Xeon processors, with an on-chip memory controller supporting a bandwidth of up to 32Gbit/s and Intel's QuickPath Interconnect (QPI) in place of the traditional system bus. Each Nehalem EP chip has two QPI links, one connecting to the system chipset and the other between the two processor sockets in a system. Each is capable of transferring 25Gbit/s.

Another feature of Nehalem called Turbo Boost helps make maximum use of processor power. If the operating system requests more performance, and the chip is within its thermal power constraints, it can ramp up the clock speed for each individual core.

Nehalem products are coming up fast. Dell Cisco, Lenovo, HP and Sun and many more are likely to introduce Nehalam systems shortly, if they have not done already. Nehalem is a very nice upgrade for Intel in the two-socket space. It has great performance, and great performance per watt. Besides higher performance, Nehalem systems will consume up to 20 per cent less. energy which, combined with the need for fewer servers, leads to reduced operating expenditure.

The first Xeon chips based on Intel's Nehalem architecture is expected to be received very well.

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