Monday, 18 December 2006

Intel Releases Fifth Quad-core Chip

Intel has announced that it is shipping the Xeon 5335 processor two months ahead of schedule as an addition to its 5300 series of quad core processors to meet demand from server manufacturers for the processor.

The 5335 is a 2GHz processor with a 1.333GHz front-side bus and 8MB of L2 memory cache. The front side bus is the connection between the central processing unit and the memory cache. It is positioned above the 5320 model, which features a 1.86GHz processor, a 1.066GHz front-side bus, and below the 5345, with a 2.33GHz processor and a 1.333GHz front-side bus. All three operate at 80 watts, compared to higher-end 5300s, which operate at 120 and 130 watts.

Intel began the transition to multi-core technology 4 years ago with Hyper-Threading Technology (HT Technology), followed by the introduction of the industry’s first dual-core PC processors in April last year. Intel recently refreshed its entire product line by introducing over 40 new processors, including those based on the revolutionary Intel Core micro architecture, a more powerful yet energy-efficient design. Quad cores, which allow the micro processor package to perform up to four functions simultaneously, were first introduced by Intel in November, when it delivered four computing “brains” inside a single microprocessor with the introduction of the Quad-Core Intel Xeon 5300 and Intel Core2 Extreme quad-core processor families.