Con il comunicato stampa di seguito allegato, Intel ha annunciato ufficialmente la nuova gamma di processori Xeon 5500, anche noti con il nome in codice di "Nehalem-EP", che al momento include ben 17 chip.

I nuovi Xeon 5500 rappresentano sostanzialmente il primo esempio di processori per ambito enterprise/server di Intel basati sull'architettura Nehalem, ben nota in ambito consumer in virtù delle soluzioni Core i7, a cui gli Xeon 5500 sono vicini per numerosi aspetti, il primo dei quali è rappresentato dal superamento del concetto di NorthBridge come entità indispensabile per l'interazione della cpu con la memoria centrale da un lato e le device connesse ai bus dall'altro.

Tra le tecnologie proprietarie supportate dai nuovi chip citiamo Intel Turbo Boost Technology, che gestisce la frequenza operativa della cpu in base al carico, minimizzando il consumo di potenza quando possibile, Intel Hyper-Threading Technology, che aumenta il throughput in virtù del ricorso al parallelismo in abbinamento al software multi-threaded, e Intel Virtualization Technology (VT), mediante la quale è possibile virtualizzare gli ambienti di lavoro.

In accordo ad Intel, in alcuni ambiti applicativi gli Xeon 5500 sono capaci di raddoppiare le prestazioni dei processori Intel della precedente generazione, ossia gli Xeon 5400.

Al momento sono numerosi i produttori di software che supportano le piattaforme Xeon 5500-based, costruite intorno a uno o più chipset Intel 5520: Intel cita Citrix, IBM, Microsoft, Novell, Oracle, Red Hat, SAP AG, Sun Microsystems e VMware.

Gli Xeon 5500 hanno un costo, in stock composti da 1000 pezzi, che va da un minimo di $188 per la versione entry-level ad un massimo di $1.600 per la variante flag-ship.

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SANTA CLARA, Calif., March 30, 2009 – Intel Corporation introduced 17 enterprise-class processors today, led by the Intel Xeon processor 5500 series. They are Intel's most revolutionary server processors since addressing the market with the Intel Pentium Pro processor almost 15 years ago.

The new enterprise-class chips can automatically adjust to specified energy usage levels, and speed data center transactions and customer database queries. They also will play a key role in scientific discoveries by researchers who use supercomputers as their foundation for research, all whilst delivering great energy efficiency for reduced electricity costs.

The Intel Xeon processor 5500 series, previously codenamed "Nehalem-EP," offers several breakthrough technologies that radically improve system speed and versatility. Technologies such as Intel Turbo Boost Technology, Intel Hyper-Threading Technology, integrated power gates, and Next-Generation Intel Virtualization Technology (VT) improved through extended page tables, allow the system to adapt to a broad range of workloads.

"The Intel Xeon processor 5500 series is the foundation for the next decade of innovation," said Patrick Gelsinger, senior vice president and general manager of Intel's Digital Enterprise Group. "These chips showcase groundbreaking advances in performance, virtualization and workload management, which will create opportunities to solve the world's most complex challenges and push the limits of science and technology."

Fifteen Billion Connected Devices
As use of the Internet expands toward Intel's vision of 15 billion connected devices, the Intel Xeon processor 5500 series will also power an upcoming transformation for the Internet's infrastructure. The high-tech industry has rallied around a goal to run applications from optimized processors and computing hardware that are available on-demand and scalable to the masses. Often called cloud computing, this vision could flourish helped by the adaptability, capability and intelligence of the Intel Xeon processor 5500 series.

Greatest Intel Xeon Performance Leap in History¹
With over 30 new world records² the Intel Xeon processor 5500 series establishes new standards for two-socket performance while delivering gains of more than double the previous- generation Intel Xeon processor 5400 series.

Fujitsu's PRIMERGY* server platforms set records for SPECint*_rate_base2006 and SPECfp*_rate_base2006 with scores of 240 and 194, respectively. The HP ProLiant DL370 G6 server, on the TPC*-C benchmark, shattered the previous record with a score of 631,766 tpmC using the Oracle 11g database. Using the SAP*-SD benchmark, the IBM System x* 3650 M2 server set a record with a score of 5100 SD users. Cisco delivered an outstanding result on SPEComp*Mbase2001, a high performance computing benchmark which helps evaluate performance of OpenMP applications, that was 154 percent better than previous generation 5400 series. On the SPECpower*_ssj2008 benchmark, which measures energy-efficient...