Intel Phases Out Conroe & Yorkfield Xeons
To be more specific, the company is getting rid of the following processors:
- Quad-core 2.66GHz Xeon X3350 with 12MB L2 cache
- Quad-core 2.5GHz Xeon X3320 with 6MB L2 cache
- Dual-core 3GHz Xeon 3085 with 4MB L2 cache
- Dual-core 2.66GHz Xeon 3075 with 4MB L2 cache
- Dual-core 2.33GHz Xeon 3065 with 4MB L2 cache
According to Intel's Product Change Notification #109186-00 (PDF), the final ship date for the discontinued Xeons will be January 9, 2010. Final orders for these chips must be placed by October 9th.
By getting rid of its Core 2-based Xeons, Intel is making room for its Nehalem-based Xeon chips. The first of the 17 new chips was introduced last week. Intel has touted the new chips as the company’s "most revolutionary server processors since addressing the market with the Intel Pentium Pro processor almost 15 years ago."
Intel’s latest processors are revolutionary for a number of reasons. First, they can automatically adjust to specified energy usage levels. Secondly, they offer Turbo Boost which can increase system performance by dynamically boosting the clock speed of one or more of the processor’s individual cores. The processors also take advantage of Hyper-Threading, integrated power gates, and next-generation Intel Virtualization Technology. In addition to performance increases, the processors are green thanks to automated energy efficiency enhancements that allow for greater user control over energy expenses. Finally, the new Xeon processors offer triple the memory bandwidth in comparison to previous server processors.
