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