Let's face it–the Intel® Xeon® processor is the world's most widely deployed server for a good reason. IT has grown to rely on Intel Xeon processors for their performance, reliability, virtualization capabilities, and a whole lot more.

And at this week's Intel Developer Forum (IDF) in San Francisco, Intel Senior Fellow Stephen Pawlowski took the stage to discuss the next generation of Intel Xeon processors, codenamed Nehalem-EX. "We've had a number of customers who have come to us and said, 'we want to be able to use Xeon and also the mission critical segment.  What kinds of things or what kinds of capabilities can you put in there?'" spoke Pawlowski in his IDF session. The answer? Intel is throwing a whole lot at Nehalem-EX, all but the kitchen sink.

Designed for mission-critical performance, RAS, along with hardware-based virtualization, Nehalem-EX has got an industry-standard server makeover, with the ability to monitor, report, and recover from hardware errors to maintain data integrity and keep mission-critical services online. And that's just the half of it. With Nehalem-EX, IT and business knows that they've got a solid roadmap they can rely on for years to come.

Nehalem-EX also offers scalability along with world-record virtualization performance, enabling the highest consolidation ratios of any industry-standard server. And as IT departments across the board move to lower costs while increasing hardware utilization, Intel has responded to their needs by improving and enhancing its hardware-based virtualization technology.

Including broad industry support for an era that is increasingly moving towards the cloud, virtualization technology combined with energy-efficient performance and RAS-rich environments provide a reliable, scalable environment that IT departments can bank on. 

In my previous blog I talked about some of the Intel's key technology advances, including 45nm high-k metal gate technology and our core microarchitecture.

Technology is providing tremendous benefits to IT

Now let's see how we apply these and other technologies to our server roadmap.

We've recently changed our segmentation strategy for servers - instead of segmenting by number of sockets (1S, 2S, 4S ...) we focus on an end user based model. The new categories are Entry Level (most cost effective for entry servers), Efficient Performance (focus on power effiency and ability to scale out), Expandable (more memory, more I/O, scale up) and Mission Critical (highest availability and scalability)

2008 is the "tock" in our "tick tock" model where we introduce our new microarchitecture code-named "Nehalem". Some of the new innovations include an integrated memory controller and 2-way simultaneous multithreading. Quick Path Interconnect dramatically increases the bandwidth of the platform, and there are a number of new features to reduce energy consumption. The Efficient Performance version of Nehalem is a 2 socket quad core platform using 45nm technology.

In the Expandable segment we introduce our "Dunnington" 6 core processor, which is socket compatable with current four socket platforms. More cores, more cache, more memory, more I/O makes this a great platform for consolidation and virtualization. Speaking of virtualization, this is another key technology in Intel platforms. VT (vritualization technology) is now available in all Intel server platforms, and enables virtualization of both the processor and the I/O subsystem. Our Flex Migration feature enables the live migration of virtual machines between processors of different vintages, incresasing the flexibility of virtualization deployments.

Mission critical systems based on the Intel Itanium processor need a massive amount of resources in order to scale to the highest processor and core counts to get maximum performance. The next-generation processor code-named "Tukwila" will provide multiple cores and resources in a chip with over two billion transistors. These systems incorporate the next-generation Intel QuickPath Interconnect to support reliability and additional performance.

Here are a couple of links to examples of customer success stories with quad core processors and 45nm technology

Case Study: Quad-Core Processors Pass the Test at Cornell University

Case Study: Sohu.com Powers the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games* Official Website