Intel guns one four-core Xeon, cools another
AMD talks to OEMs
Intel has pumped out a pair of fresh server chips meant to give AMD fits. Customers will now find the Xeon X5365 and L5335 four-core processors. The higher-end X5365 runs at 3.0GHz while eating up a max of 120W. Meanwhile, energy conscious types will want to check out the L5335 that runs at 2.0GHz while consuming just 50W.
As reported earlier, the L5335 should prove particularly troubling for AMD. The smaller chipmaker is just pushing out a 1.9GHz version of the four-core 'Barcelona' flavor of Opteron to server OEMs now, and that chip consumes 68W. A 2.0GHz standard edition Barcelona tops out at 95W.
The new four-core chips from Intel also come with faster 1333MHz front side bus speeds, helping Intel deal with a long-standing bottleneck. Intel has been shipping products with a 1066MHz FSB.
Intel is bragging that it got the new Xeons out quicker than expected. Again, that's a jab at AMD, which has Barcelona coming in later and slower than many hoped.
The X5365 will cost $1,172 in volume, while the L5335 costs $380. ®
COMMENTS
AMD is in deep doo-doo
This is my opinion- Intel is doing whatever they can in keeping AMD in the rear of the pack, which I don't blame them at all! Being an ex-worker there it doesn't surprise me. NO, I'm not a disgruntled ex-employee, but I clearly remember the internal flyers on how Intel was viewed as a beast that must be slayed (anyone remember the promotional Dragonslayer days of the late 80's, early 90's?) or the big purple gorilla that was in the way of AMD becoming the premier, future CPU maker. Go Intel, Go! Hell, go ANYBODY, other than AMD! Looks like the BIG Gorilla is serving up HIS purple banana to AMD. Go get a life in some other manufacturing arena, OTHER than the chip business AMD.
TDP not accurate compared to AMD
As said over and over again. Intel TDP values are lower because unlike AMD they have no onboard memory controller. When Intel releases their new chips that do have this built in, the TDP will most likely be near AMD.
So to measure it properly you would compare Intels chip + Memory controller TDP to AMDs single CPU
I think Intel have started heading in the right direction but at the moment it is still just marketing gimmicks keeping them ahead.
Mac processors
No doubt you're right, but the ones in Macs identify themselves as Xeon X5365.
New 3GHz Xeons
To Richard Tobin - You are partially right - But these are the 1st quad-core 3GHz server chips to fit into a standard 120W thermal envelope. The chips you mention were only use in Apple workstations at had a higher TDP. These chips will be used in workstations and servers sold by nearly 50 OEM's. FYI - I work at Intel.
50W is TDP
Hi, I work for Intel - and I just wanted to clear something up -- 50W is TDP, that is the maximum power the chip will draw. Not typical, or average power. Those would be lower.
