Intel's quad-core Xeon DP processor, 'Clovertown', will consume less power than the top-end dual-core Xeon 5000 part the chip giant unveiled this week. That said, it'll run hotter than 'Woodcrest' the next-generation architecture-based dualie due to debut next month as the Xeon 5100 series.

In a presentation given by Intel to the Taiwanese press this week, the company revealed Clovertown will consume no more than 120W in its "performance optimised" form - less than the 130W required by the equivalent versions of the Xeon 5000 series - aka 'Dempsey' - and the 135W drawn by the 90nm dual-core 'Paxville' Xeon.

Woodcrest, by contrast, will draw no more than 80W, Intel claimed. In its "mainstream" form, Woodcrest will consume 65W, less than Dempsey's 95W and Clovertown's 80W. Still, with four cores rather than two, Intel is banking on Clovertown delivering a sufficient performance boost to provide a better performance-per-Watt score. Clovertown is essentially two Woodcrests combined on a single die and sharing the same 1066/1333MHz frontside bus and LGA-771 interconnect.

Clovertown, as Intel has said publicly, will ship in H1 2007 targeting both the mainstream and performance-optimised segments but not high-density servers. That market is currently the focus of 'Sossaman', the 31W Core Duo-derived dual-core part Intel introduced a year ago and finally shipped in March 2006. It's due to be superceded by a low-voltage Woodcrest drawing 40W but providing 64-bit processing - Sossaman is a 32-bit part. The LV Woodcrest will continue to target this segment through H1 2007, Intel roadmaps indicate. ®