Products Optimised for Dual-Processor Servers

News Release

INTEL EXPANDS REACH OF INTEL® ITANIUM® 2-BASED SYSTEMS
WITH TWO NEW PROCESSORS

Products Optimised for Dual-Processor Servers and Workstations

Intel Corporation today introduced two Intel® Itanium® 2 processors optimised for dual-processor systems, expanding the processor family’s reach and enabling lower-cost, lower-power systems for technical computing and front-end enterprise applications.

The number of server and workstation models based on the Itanium processor family, including systems from Dell, HP and IBM, is expected to double this year to more than 40 two- and four-way systems. In addition, Intel offers to manufacturers a rack-optimised, dual-processor Intel server platform for these new Intel Itanium 2 processors.

The two new processors are the Intel Itanium 2 processor at 1.40 GHz with a 1.5 MB level three (L3) cache, providing leading price-performance for technical computing applications, and the Low Voltage Intel Itanium 2 processor at 1.0 GHz with a 1.5 MB L3 cache, which consumes approximately half the power of existing Itanium 2 processors.

Complementing the existing large-scale Itanium 2-based systems with up to 128 or more processors per system, the new processors allow for lower-cost and lower-power dual-processor systems for use in network edge, security and software engineering applications. These dual- processor platforms can help IT managers realise increased flexibility and efficiencies in broadening their Itanium architecture-based environments.

“Itanium 2 processor-based systems deliver industry-leading performance, business value and choice for data-intensive, business-critical enterprise solutions,” said Richard Dracott, group marketing director for Intel’s Enterprise Platforms Group. “With these new processors, Itanium 2-based systems can now power virtually all facets of the data centre, from entry-level systems to supercomputers and massive database servers.”

The Intel Itanium 2 processor at 1.40 GHz with 1.5 MB of cache is optimised for dual-processor, high-performance technical and scientific computing systems and clusters and entry-level, front-end enterprise systems. Enabling systems for less than $US7,000, it also delivers outstanding floating point performance per compute node, resulting in an industry-leading price per gigaflop (billion calculations per second), a measure of price-performance for compute-intensive workloads.**

The Low Voltage Intel Itanium 2 processor (formerly code-named Deerfield) supports entry-level, front-end enterprise systems, offering a compelling alternative to entry-level RISC-based platforms. With maximum power consumption of 62 watts – less than half the power of existing Itanium 2 processors – it is optimised for lower-power and lower-cost systems. These solutions are typically used in network edge and software engineering where power consumption and cost are primary considerations.

In addition, hundreds of applications and tools are optimised for the Itanium processor family, including database solutions from IBM, Microsoft and Oracle; major enterprise and front-end server applications from BEA, BMC, EMC/LEGATO Systems, RSA Security, SAP, SAS, and Symantec; and technical computing applications from ABAQUS, Ansys, Accelrys, EDS, Fluent, LSTC, Mental Images, Mentor Graphics, MSC and PTC. Operating system support for the Itanium processor family includes Microsoft Windows* Server 2003; Linux* from Red Hat, SuSE, TurboLinux, and UnitedLinux; and HP-UX from HP.*

The Intel Itanium 2 processor at 1.40 GHz with 1.5 MB of cache and the Low Voltage Intel Itanium 2 processor at 1.0 GHz with 1.5 MB of cache are now available worldwide for $US1,172 and $US744 in 1,000-unit quantities, respectively.

Intel, the world’s largest chip maker, is also a leading manufacturer of computer, networking and communications products. Additional information about Intel is available at www.intel.com/pressroom.

Intel and Itanium are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries.
* Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.
** Based on Linpack HPC benchmark. Sources: Intel measurements using two Itanium® 2 processor 1.4GHz with 1.5MB cache, performance of about 10GFLOPs on 2P, pricing of ~$US7730 for Intel SR870BH2 server with 2P, 2GB RAM, 2x36GB HDD. IBM Power4+ 1.2GHz assumes linear scaling (13.030GLOPS/2) of 6.5GFLOPs performance, published by IBM May 2003 on similar speed P630 with 4P, pricing of $US8995 from www.ibm.com on P615 using 2P, 2GB memory, 2x36GB HDD.

ENDS

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