Intel Corporation has announced plans to release the next Xeon server processor (codenamed Nehalem-EX) in 2010. The processor will be at the heart of the next generation of intelligent and expandable high-end Intel server platforms, which will deliver a number of new technical advancements and boost enterprise computing performance, according to Intel. In production later this year, the Nehalem-EX processor will feature up to eight cores inside a single chip supporting 16 threads and 24Mb of cache, reports efytimes.
Nehalem-EX would add new reliability, availability and serviceability (RAS) features traditionally found in the company's Intel Itanium processor family, such as Machine Check Architecture (MCA) Recovery, the company added.
These high-end server chips have over 2.3 billion transistors and will be implemented in Intel's 45nm high-k metal gate technology.
Intel said Nehalem-EX would offer up to nine times the memory bandwidth of the previous-generation Intel Xeon 7400 platform. Nehalem-EX will also double the memory capacity with up to 16 memory slots per processor socket and offer four high-bandwidth QuickPath Interconnect links.
Nehalem-EX will provide tremendous scalability, from large-memory two-socket systems through eight-socket systems capable of processing 128 threads simultaneously without the need for third-party chips to "glue" the platform together, as per the company.
