Intel has begun shipping 'Woodcrest', its dual-core, 65nm Xeon processor based on its next-generation 'Core' architecture and sibling to 'Conroe' and 'Merom', the chip giant said today.

As expected, Woodcrest processors will come to market as the Xeon 5100 series, which currently comprises six models: the 5110, 5120, 5130, 5140, 5150 and 5160, clocked at 1.6GHz, 1.86GHz, 2GHz, 2.33GHz, 2.66GHz and 3GHz, respectively, and all sporting 4MB of L2 cache shared by each chip's twin cores. The bottom two processors run on a 1066MHz frontside bus, but the rest run over a 1333MHz bus.

The 5160 consumes up to 80W, but the other five chips in the series have TDPs of 65W, Intel said.

The manufacturer claimed the new chip has 135 per cent more processing power yet consumes 40 per cent less energy than past Xeons, though it curiously compared a 90nm 2.8GHz dual-core Xeon (800MHz FSB) with the 65nm 3GHz Xeon 5160 (1333MHz FSB). There was no mention of the 65nm Xeon 5000 series, launched in May and which runs at up to 3.73GHz over a 1066MHz FSB.

Dollar pricing is not yet available, but Intel's Japanese subsidiary today said the new CPUs range from ¥24,000 to ¥97,000, which translates to $206-833. That puts the 5100 series on a par with the higher-clocked 5000 line-up. ®