Intel unveils low-power, quad-core server chips

Adam Turner
Monday, 12 March 2007 10:35

Your IT - Home IT

Intel has expanded its range of energy efficient processors with the addition of a low voltage, 50 watt quad-core chip to its Xeon server range.
The 50-watt "Clovertown" L5320 and L5310 Xeon processors operate at 1.86 GHz and 1.6 GHz respectively. Due to be launched by Intel today, each crams four processing cores into the one chip along with an 8MB cache. They are compatible with existing Xeon dual-core and quad-core chips but Intel claims they offer between a 35 and 60 per cent decrease in power consumption compared to Intel's existing 80-watt and 120-watt quad-core processors.

The new chips are targeted at blade servers and data centres looking to address cooling issues and mammoth power bills. The world's data centres are racking up $US7.2 billion in power bills every year, $US2.7 million of which comes from the US, according to a study commissioned by AMD.

Total data centre electricity consumption in 2005, in the US alone, was approximately 45 billion kWh once you allow for cooling and auxiliary equipment. This represented 1.2 per cent of US electricity consumption, comparable to the amount of power consumed by all of the country's colour televisions.