While this is primarily a visualization site, occasionally we dip into other hardware aspects as they may affect the work we do. For example, we have talked about SSDs in the past, especially with regards to PCI-Express based solutions. Faster access to storage means less time waiting when loading large files, or many small files. Thus we bring you the latest rumor on an Intel chip that we have been salivating over for some time now.
The Nehalem-EX is an eight core chip based on the Nehalem architecture. The -EX tag stands for EXpandable server market. That is, this chip will go into four socket machines, which means that you will have 32 real cores on which to perform your rendering. The Nehalem-EX will be sold as high-end Xeon chips. The current high-end Xeons are the 5500 series. The new chips will occupy the 6500/7500 series range.
The X6550 will have eight cores running at 2.00 GHz, with 18 MB of L3 shared cache and two QuickPath interfaces running at 6.4 GT/s. This CPU has a TDP of 130W.
The X7550 will have eight cores running at 2.00 GHz, with 18 MB of L3 shared cache and four QuickPath interfaces running at 6.4 GT/s. This CPU has a TDP of 130W.
The L7555 will have eight cores running at 1.86 GHz, with 18 MB of L3 shared cache and four QuickPath interfaces running at 5.8 GT/s. This is a lower power version with a TDP of 90W.
The X7560 will have eight cores running at 2.26 GHz, with 18 MB of L3 shared cache and four QuickPath interfaces running at 6.4 GT/s. This CPU has a TDP of 130W.
In case you are wondering, GT/s stands for gigatransfers per second. You can think of this as billions of bits per second. This is the raw data rate without any encoding.
Personally I am looking forward to system with four sockets filled with Nehalem-EX (32 cores), with a Fermi or two in it. That way when I start rendering, the entire town will brown-out.
via : Intel to release 8-core Xeons this month | Guru3D
via : Intel to Begin Nehalem-EX Shipments This Month | Guru3D
