| With the release of dual-core Xeon chips for blade | | | | (Dual-Core Xeon 5000 series) and Woodcrest |
| servers, Intel has again accentuated the ability of | | | | (Dual-Core Xeon 5100) were released by Intel. |
| companies to save money in terms of lower | | | | The release of Woodcrest made some believe |
| power consumption and increased reliability. | | | | Dempsey, based on the Intel "Bensley" server |
| Studies indicate a blade server can reduce power | | | | platform, was immediately obsolete. However, |
| and cooling costs 15 to 25 percent, meeting the | | | | Intel has marketed Dempsey as a low-cost |
| needs of energy-conscious customers. The | | | | alternative to Woodcrest. |
| dual-core/dual-processor capabilities are ideal for a | | | | The most important comparison of Woodcrest |
| wide range of low-power communications and | | | | with Dempsey is that Woodcrest consumes far |
| embedded applications. | | | | less power and dissipates much less heat than |
| Blade-server fact: Even blades that don't use | | | | Dempsey because the micro-architecture was |
| lower-power processors can reduce the overall | | | | heavily optimized to reduce power consumption. |
| power and cooling requirements of a rack by | | | | Woodcrest comes in three varieties, the 40W |
| eliminating many duplicate power-consuming | | | | TDP versions optimized for blades, the |
| infrastructure components that are included in 1U | | | | mainstream 65W TDP parts, and the 3GHz top |
| and 2U rack servers. | | | | bin part which has an 80W TDP. |
| A blade server might only consume one-half or | | | | All parts below 3GHz will fall into the 65W or 40W |
| two-thirds the power of traditional 1U and 2U | | | | TDP range. In comparison, the top bin Dempsey |
| rack-mount servers of equivalent processing | | | | parts had a 130W TDP, and mid range parts were |
| power. The reason is that the consolidation of the | | | | rated at 95W, and the massive power |
| resources helps the blade server gain an | | | | requirements and thermal issues precluded ever |
| economy of scale. For example, rather than | | | | using Dempsey in a blade. |
| having 10 500-watt supplies for 10 traditional 1U | | | | Moreover, Woodcrest also has improved sleep |
| servers, a blade server can have two 2,000-watt | | | | states and clock gating which help to lower |
| supplies. | | | | average power. |
| With all that support gear removed and put into | | | | Dempsey's speed ranges between 2.67 and 3.73 |
| the shared chassis, the blade server is much | | | | GHz. Some models have an FSB speed of 667 |
| smaller. With the reduced size, the blade server | | | | MHz while others have an FSB of 1066 MHz. |
| can be hot-plugged into the chassis, which | | | | Woodcrest, the first Intel core micro-architecture |
| provides the power and cooling. Therefore, the | | | | to be launched, provides an 80 percent boost in |
| shared chassis provides a much more efficient | | | | performance, while reducing power consumption |
| use of space and power. | | | | 20 percent relative to Pentium D. |
| Add new, low power processors to the efficiency | | | | It has an FSB of 1333 MHz in most models, |
| of a single chassis and blade servers become an | | | | except for the 5110 and 5120, which have an FSB |
| increasingly attractive option for server | | | | of 1066 MHz, with the fastest processor clocking |
| consolidation projects. | | | | in at 3.0 GHz. All Woodcrests use LGA 771 and all |
| The three new Xeon server chips released this | | | | but the 5160 and 5148LV have a TDP of 65 W, |
| year by Intel are Sossaman (released March 14), | | | | which is much less than the previous generation |
| Dempsey (May 23) and Woodcrest (June 26). | | | | of 130 W. The 5160 has a TDP of 80 W, still |
| The Xeon chips combine the benefits of two | | | | much less than 130 W. |
| distinct high-performance execution cores with | | | | Intel has begun shipping to its customers the next |
| intelligent power management features to deliver | | | | generation of Intel Server Systems, Server |
| significantly greater performance-per-watt over | | | | Boards and Server Chassis featuring the |
| previous single-core Intel Xeon processor-based | | | | Dual-Core Xeon 5000 and 5100 sequences |
| platforms. The following is a brief explanation of | | | | (Dempsey and Woodcrest). |
| each: | | | | The use of these blade servers provides great |
| Sossaman (also known as the Xeon Low Voltage) | | | | benefits to small and large businesses alike. For |
| uses approximately 30 watts of power and is | | | | smaller operations, one or several individual |
| rated at 31 watts Thermal Design Power (TDP). It | | | | servers are often the most cost-effective way |
| packs two to four times greater | | | | to support a small network. In larger installations, |
| performance-per-watt than its predecessor, a | | | | particularly ones that are expected to grow |
| 55-watt version of a single-core Intel Xeon chip | | | | quickly in capacity, the blade server architecture |
| called "Irwindale." | | | | offers more impact and easy expandability. |
| The processor comes in 1.66GHz and 2.0GHz | | | | In summary, blade servers - with the latest |
| speeds and offers 32-bit instead of 64-bit | | | | releases of Intel dual-core Xeon chips - increase |
| addressing (because it is derived from a notebook | | | | reliability, decrease energy consumption, and are |
| chip). It has a front-side bus speed of 667 MHz | | | | the best logical choice for a company to save |
| and L2 cache size of 2 MiB. | | | | money and improve manageability. |
| Within almost a month of each other, Dempsey | | | | |