Intel Corporation today announced the first Intel® Xeon™ processor for servers featuring Hyper-Threading technology and the Intel® Netburst™ microarchitecture. The company also introduced the Intel® E7500 chipset. The new server platform can boost system performance for two-way systems by up to 80 percent versus existing Intel-based platforms. Available at frequencies of 2.2, 2 and 1.8 GHz, the Intel Xeon processor family will be the foundation of two-way servers for years to come. "Our continued efforts to enhance our products year after year will keep Xeon processor-based platforms at the top of the line in terms of scalability, performance, and value," said Mike Fister, senior vice president and general manager for Intel's Enterprise Platforms Group. "The Intel Xeon processor family and the E7500 chipset showcase Intel-based server technology and innovation at its best."

The Intel Xeon processor for dual-processing servers offers users several new system performance boosts, with the Intel Netburst microarchitecture on Intel's 0.13-micron manufacturing process, Hyper-Threading technology, a larger (512 KB) level two cache size and the E7500 server chipset. The Intel E7500 chipset supports DDR memory technology and is optimized for the Intel Xeon processor. The first in a family of Intel-based volume server chipsets, the E7500 enables twice the memory bandwidth over legacy SDRAM platforms. The new chipset will accelerate memory access to increase platform performance and deliver new levels of performance for I/O intensive server applications.

The Intel Xeon processor with 512 KB level two Advanced Transfer Cache is priced at $615 in 1,000-unit quantities for 2.20 GHz, $417 for 2 GHz and $251 for 1.80 GHz. The Intel E7500 chipset is priced at $92 in 1,000-unit quantities in minimum configuration and $132 in 1,000 unit quantities in maximum configuration.