Today Intel formally launched this new processor at a press event in San Francisco. The event consisted of Intel VP and GM of Digital Enterprise Group Kirk Skaugen's presentation to the press including customer testimonials from NYSE Technologies, CEA (French govt funded tech research organization), and Ericsson. There was also a massive sampling of systems on display from multiple OEMs that will bring mission critical computing to the mainstream, and support announcements from major enterprise ISVs including VMware, Microsoft, SAP, Oracle, and Citrix.
Some of the takeaways specific to the Xeon 7500 from Kirk's speech were as follows:
The Intel Xeon Processor 7500 series delivers the biggest performance leap in the history of the Xeon product line with up to a 3 times the performance vs. previous generation on a variety of enterprise workloads, and up to 20 times the performance versus a large chunk of the install base which is single core servers purchased 4-5 years ago. This revolutionary performance comes from bringing the Nehalem Architecture to big servers, but also Intel QuickPath Technology (QPI), 8-Cores / 16 threads, and a whopping 24MB of shared cache.
It’s not just the performance that is revolutionary. Probably the most important breakthrough from a capability perspective is the innovation in scalability. OEMs are introducing a ton of unique and innovative platforms for the high end that enable new levels of scalability in a modular fashion, from 2-sockets with large memory, to 8-sockets directly connected via QPI links, and up to 256 sockets with OEM node controllers. Memory capacity has also exploded, with 4 Socket Systems serving up to 64 Dimms that are capable of 1 Terabyte of memory. IT could run an entire enterprise database in memory with such memory capacity.
And that means Xeon 7500 is going to be a catalyst for mission critical transformation. Customers running mission critical workloads will demand the highest scalability, but will also demand high availability. The Xeon 7500 has over 20 New Advanced Reliability features which will allow customers to migrate their mission-critical applications with confidence from proprietary RISC based offerings to industry-standard servers powered by Intel® Xeon® processor 7500 series. And now IT can get what was previously possible in proprietary systems for a fraction of the cost.
Over 50 System manufacturers around the world were expected to announce systems based on the Intel Xeon processor 7500/6500 processor, many starting today. These announcements include the first ever two-socket expandable rack servers, multiple four-socket blade servers, and a whole new industry of 8-Sockets or greater servers from 12 different OEMs.
The Intel Xeon Processor 7500 has already set over 20 new performance world records on industry benchmarks, from 2-Socket to 64-Sockets for key workloads like virtualization, database, business intelligence, enterprise resource planning and e-commerce to name just a few.
Here's also a copy of the press release on Intel.com, which includes new highlights, videos and photos, quotes, performance data, etc.
Previous Blog Links:
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