Intel’s Monster Chip

Intel has launched a new six-core xeon processor, codename Dunnington, model number 7400. It is basically penryn plus an L3 shared cache, with 6 cores on the chip. It is 1.9billion transistors. The 2.66ghz model has a TDP(basically the most power the chip should ever use) of 120W. The 2.4ghz model has a TDP of 90W, and the 2.1ghz model has a TDP of 65w. There are three sets of two cores, each core has 3MB of cache, and there is a much larger 16MB L3 shared cache, as well as some interconnect logic to let the cores talk to each other without making use of the FSB. The big advantage of this chip, though, is that it will run on current server motherboards, so those who don’t want to jump to Nehalem with the new motherboard architecture can get something between the normal Penryn and the Nehalem. Of course it has none of the big advantages of Nehalem like a Quick Path Interconnect, or new power management, but it does have the most cores of any Intel or AMD processor on the market today, and with the penryn architecture this thing blows a quad-core Opteron out of the water. This processor offers a different upgrade path, allowing servers that don’t need the speed or efficiency that Nehalem will bring, or that can’t wait for those things, a bit longer lifespan.