Currently existing processors contain 1, 2, 3 or 4 cores. However, this series will very soon get a continuation: next month we are going to see 6-core Intel processors aka Dunnington. These CPUs will belong to Xeon 7400 family targeted for scalable (up to 32-way), reliable, powerful 64-bit servers for enterprise applications.

6-core Dunnington processor should be announced on September 14, according to company roadmap. The line-up will include three models: Xeon X7460 with 2.67GHz clock frequency and 130W TDP, Xeon E7450 with 2.4GHz frequency and 90W TDP and low-voltage Xeon L7455 with 65W TDP and 2.13GHz clock speed. All processors will be built with Intel's new 45-nanometer Penryn technology and will support 1066MHz bus speed. Xeon X7460 will be equipped with 16MB L3 cache while Xeon L7455 and Xeon E7450 will have a 12MB L3 cache onboard.

New Xeon X7460 and Xeon L7455 processors will be priced at $2729, and Xeon E7450 – at $2301.

"The big cache and six cores will give customers a nice bump in performance," Pat Gelsinger, senior vice president and general manager of Intel Corp.'s digital enterprise group said previously. "We're quite excited about it." The new Intel Xeon processor X7460 with 6 cores and 16MB L3 cache for expandable servers launching in September has already broken multiple performance world records. An 8-socket IBM System x3950 M2 server became the first platform to break the 1 million tpmC barrier on the TPC-C benchmark. New 4-Socket performance records include TPC-C on HP Proliant DL580 G5, TPC-E on Dell PowerEdge R900, SPECjbb2005 on Sun Fire X4450 and SPECint_rate2006 on Fujitsu-Siemens PRIMERGY RX600 S4.

We have to admit that this way Intel managed to outpace AMD in increasing the number of processor cores in server CPUs. As you know, the upcoming 6-core Istanbul server processor from AMD is due in second half of 2009, no sooner than that.

Intel hasn't announced when it might release 6-core chips for the desktop and laptops.

Tags: Intel, Xeon, Dunnington