That Nehalem-series processor draws just 45W at full blow, but will soon be replaced by a a dual-core Clarkdale requiring 30W.  The individual server board is designed to sit into an 8.75-inch-tall chassis that has the network and power connectivity together with responsibility for actively cooling the system; up to 16 microservers can fit into each chassis.

Running along the bottom, meanwhile, are 16 2.5-inch HDD sleds that connect to each microserver.  While unlikely to be capable of supporting a mainstream site, the microservers will be ideal “for the low-end, scaled-out Web hosting space” Jason Waxman, general manager of Intel’s high-density computing group explained.  The new range of relatively frugal CPUs means “[Intel] think we can put enough power in a low enough power envelope” Waxman continued.

Eventually, the goal is to achieve a 25W idle draw for the entire microprocessor.  Intel will be offering the design specification to the Server System Infrastructure Forum before the end of 2009.

Jasper Forest will be built on 45nm processes but use 32nm technology for 27W system power savings, together with incorporating the I/O hub onto the processor.  That will allow for PCI Express 2.0 ports, RAID 5 and 6 support and Intel 3420 chipset connectivity directly from the CPU.  Intended for use in embedded, communications and storage equipment – such as routers, VoIP systems, NAS and wireless infrastructure systems – Jasper Forest offers Nehalem-based Xeon 5500-series processor performance but in a more economical, cooler package.

The first hardware partners using Jasper Forest will be revealed at the IDF, together with further detail on how Intel’s 32nm CPU processes have been certified.  CPU wafers for the company’s Westmere platform are expected to go into revenue production in Q4 2009; that will be accompanied by “smarter System on Chip” production.

Each can be flipped into Turbo mode, with the i7-860 scaling up to 3.46GHz, the i7-870 up to 3.6GHz, and the i5-750 up to 3.2GHz.  All three have a TDP of 95W, and will be priced – when bought in 1,000 unit quantities – at $284, $562 and $196 each, respectively.

As for the Xeon chips, they range from the 2.4GHz entry-level X3430, through the low-power 45W TDP Xeon L3426 (which can be clocked between 1.86 and 3.2GHz) to the 2.93GHz X3470.  Full details in the chart below.

MSI is aiming to ship 15.4- and 17-inch notebooks that revolve around the Core i7 7200M, Core i7 8200M, and the Core i7 920XM CPUs. It’s Intel’s “Calpella” platform that intends to improve upon the company’s current Centrino chipset, and MSI is hoping that the pricing for the upcoming pieces of technology to hit the registers at somewhere between $600 and $900. The upcoming CPUs will offer performance slightly less than the desktop brethren, but will use the same Nehalem architecture.

It’s said that the new Core i7 will improve power management and lessen the temperatures outputted. The aforementioned 15.4- and 17-inch notebooks are set to launch in relation to the release of Windows 7, so if you’re in the market for a new, flashy Operating System and some new hardware, than MSI wants your money. Think it’s enough to earn it?

[via Gizmodo]

Meanwhile Intel’s desktop chip Clarkdale and notebook chip Arrandale are on track for a launch in Q1 2010, and will be followed by six-core Gulftown CPUs in Q2 2010.  Unsurprisingly, Intel themselves declined to comment on the speculation.

Our test Z400 came fitted with Intel’s 2.93GHz Xeon W3540 Bloomfield Quad-core processor paired with the X58 chipset, together with 6GB of DDR3 1333MHz ECC unbuffered memory (up to 16GB is supported) and a 300GB Western Digital VelociRaptor SATA hard-drive. It also came with an NVIDIA Quadro FX 1800 video card, which we switched out for an FX3800 for our second set of testing. The specifications are certainly decent for an entry-level workstation, though it’s worth noting that you don’t get the trick casing of the Z600 or Z800.

That’s not to say that there are no improvements over the xw4600 we reviewed back in November 2008, only that they’re more subtle. HP have switched the standard hard-drive fixings for new, rubber edged screws, and the door latch and overall fit is far improved and sits more securely against the case. The Z400 is extremely quiet, too, compared to the xw4600, though part of that is down to the new, cooler-running Xeon CPU versus the older workstation’s desktop-grade Q9650.

As for power management, the new HP Z Workstation line is ENERGY STAR 5.0 qualified and registered as Electronics Products Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) Gold – 90 percent of the system is recyclable. It minimizes power costs with a new WattSaver feature and choices of high efficient power supplies (85 or 89 percentage). The system consumes less than one-watt when switch in “off” mode.

Of course, the proof is in the performance, and the Z400 put in a strong showing across all of our benchmarks. Its overall PCMark Vantage 64-bit score of 5307 – when tested with the FX1800 – matched exactly with the xw4600 with its FX1700 graphics, but that belies significantly higher scores in memory, music, productivity and HDD, and more than double the performance in gaming. When we switched out the FX1800 for the FX3800 the overall PCMark score shot to 8605.

Turning to Geekbench 64-bit, the Z400 scored 7578 with the FX1800 and 7613 with the FX3800, while in SPECviewperf 10 64-bit the distance it put between itself and the older xw4600 widened as the thread count racked up. The Nehalem series chips are known for their multi-threaded potential, and the 2.93GHz example in the Z400 is no different. In a more real-world test, we ran some retouch-artist processing in PhotoShop CS4 64-bit, which the Z400 managed in 17.5 seconds no matter the graphics card.

As a workstation, then, the Z400 offers decent entry-level performance and reasonable flexibility. Sometime in Q3 this year HP will offer optional liquid-cooling, though with the noise-output we’ve experienced from this air-cooled model it would only be the most noise-averse office that would demand it. SSDs are also optional, should speed of data access be a particular priority, together with a Blu-ray drive, and there are plentiful ports front and back.

Balancing cost and capability, there are significant advantages to stepping up from the xw4600, which remains on sale underneath the Z400. Prime among those reasons is the Xeon processor, which comfortably bests the Core 2 Quad in the maxed-out xw4600 we tested last year. However it’s also a more flexible machine, with broader talents as the benchmarking shows, and easier to live with thanks to careful case design and quiet components.

In terms of cost, the range starts from $929 for preconfigured models, which nets you the 2.4GHz Xeon dual-core; quad-core models start from $1,499, and a rig comparable to our test unit – with the 2.93GHz CPU – will be more in the region of $2,500. For that, though, you’re getting a solid, reliable and eminently capable workstation.

The Core i5 CPUs will have the same 8MB L3 cache, VT-x virtual machines and LGA 1156 socket support as the Core i7, but lack the Hyper Threading technology that allows the Core i7 processors to effectively double their core-count to eight.  VT-d support is also missing, meaning virtual machines won’t have access to the host’s I/O.

However there is automatic overclocking where heat and power makes it possible, taking the i5-750 to 3.2GHz, the i7-860 to 3.46GHz and the i7-870 to 3.46GHz.  The three chips are expected to be priced at $196, $284 and $562 respectively, while the ‘s’ low-TDP models, the i5-750s and i7-860s, will be $259 and $337 respectively.

The quad-core chips were initially set for a summer release but it’s looking like September or early October is the likely reveal time now. We don’t know why the anticipated release would be pushed back, but what we do know are a few specs.

For instance, the mobile version of Nehalem is a real power hog starting at 45W and three versions will be available, at least at first, including the 1.6GHz P1, 1.73GHz P2 and 2GHz Extreme. Other features include automatic overclocking and hyperthreading.

“As you may already be aware in late May, Psystar filed for Chapter 11 protection. Although this was critical to our continued daily operations, we now are ready to emerge and again battle Goliath. More information will become available in the coming days when we will be formally discharged by the Bankruptcy court. When life gives you apples, make applesauce” Psystar statement

The news of the recovery came in Psystar’s customer mail-out, and included a rather loaded snub at Apple themselves.  Full details of the recovery are unclear – Psystar describe it as “critical to our continued daily operations” – but considering Chapter 11 protection is generally used to give a company time to reorganize or source alternative funding, while putting off repaying creditors, it seems obvious that Psystar have had a new injection of cash from somewhere.

As for the new product, the Psystar Open(7) pairs Intel’s Xeon processor with OS X, complete with support for up to 24GB of RAM.  Both rackmount and desktop versions are on offer, priced from $1,499.99.

[via Neowin]

Video demo after the cut

There’s also twice the memory capacity, with Nehalem-EX supporting 16 DIMMS per socket and 64 DIMMS per platform.  Compared to the existing Xeon 7400 processor the new chip offers almost three times the threads and 1.5x the cache.  That, Intel say, make it much more suitable for virtualization tasks.

The first Intel Nehalem-EX chips will reach the market in the second half of 2009, with IBM already onboard to produce servers and blades using the processor.  No word on pricing, but don’t expect them to be cheap.

“It’s one of those areas that we weren’t concerned with, [and] we obviously would not have done and structured the deal the way we had, thinking there was some challenge with the licensing and structure … You’re not hearing anything about [the issue] now; we’re not concerned with it.” Benjamin Williams, Corporate VP and Asia-Pacific General Manager, AMD

According to Benjamin Williams of AMD Asia-Pacific, his company viewed the threat as an attempt to distract from Intel’s antitrust trial.  That trial came to a surprising conclusion last week, as Intel were ordered to pay a record $1.45bn for illegally using “hidden rebates” and other tactics to prevent AMD gaining CPU market share.

Williams also suggested that the licensing agreement is more of a two-way contract than Intel might like people to think: “What [Intel] neglected to [say] is that it’s a cross-license agreement, not a one-way agreement.”  He claims it affects Intel’s Nehalem chip architecture – as used in the Core i7 range – though did not give specific examples.

[via The Tech Report]

Instead, Intel will focus on the rumored 3.06Ghz Core i7-950 and 3.33GHz Core i7-975 Extreme processors, it’s believed.  The former chip is expected to be announced at Computex 2009, although Intel themselves have not confirmed its development.  As for the new Extreme CPU, that’s been previously tipped for launch at the end of May 2009.

Changes in Intel’s Core i7 range were predicted back in March, when a roadmap for the company’s CPU plans leaked.  Intel has previously claimed to have shipped one million Nehalem processors, but that was made up roughly equally of Xeon server chips and Core i7′s.

[via Neowin]

As standard the new Apple Xserve comes with a single 160GB 7,200rpm system hard-drive; that can be switched for a 128GB SSD (for $500) that doesn’t take up a drive bay.  The three drive bays can then be outfitted with up to 1TB 7,200rpm SATA drives for a total of 3TB storage.  There’s also various gigabit ethernet and fibre channel cards that can be optioned.

Connectivity includes two x16 PCI Express 2.0 slots (one 6.6-inch half-length, one 9.25-inch), two rear FireWire 800 ports and three USB 2.0 ports (one up front, two on the back).  There’s also an RS-232 serial port.  Each runs Mac OS X Server v.10.5 unlimited-client edition and supports Intel Turbo Boost and Hyper-Threading.

The quad-core Apple Xserve is priced from $2,999, while the eight-core Apple Xserve is priced from $3,599.  The former ships within 24hrs, while the latter will ship in 3-5 business days

These new processors support HyperThreading and a Turbo Boost feature that increases clock speeds and shuts down unused cores, allowing for a serious boost in overall performance.

The Xeon 5500 ranges in price from $188 for the 1.86GHz dual-core to $1,600 for the 3.2GHz quad-core. There is also a Xeon 3500 available in three different models that range from 2.66GHz to 3.2GHz. Pricing for these ranges from $284 to $999. These Xeon processors are now available in Dell Precision systems and the HP Z800.

[via PC World]

All the models have up to 1.5TB of storage space, an eSATA port, DisplayPort connectors and are EnergyStar compliant. The first in the line up is the T3500. This model will support up to 24GB RAM. The T5500 follows next and it gets even a higher RAM capacity at up to 72GB. Dual sport sockets will also be included to make it possible to use dual Intel Xeons.

Last is the T7500, which can hold up to 192GB RAM running at 1,066MHz or 1,333MHz. It also features dual native Gen 2 PCIe graphics card slots with support for NVIDIA SLI tech. The T3500 is expected to cost $999 while the T5500 should be priced at $1,620. There’s no word on pricing for the T7500 as of yet.

[via Engadget]

Intel’s invitation to the launch describes the Core i7 as “the fastest processor on the planet”, based on SPECint_rate_base2006 benchmarking the results of which will form part of the November 17th presentation.  Our own tests on the entry-level Core i7 920 suggested that the new processor certainly out-performed last-generation Intel Core 2 Quad chips.

Nehalem is particularly special because it marks a significant change in system architecture from the previous Core design.  The Core i7 chips each have four cores capable of a total of eight threads.

Pricing for the chips has also been revealed, confirming the earlier leaks, as $284 for the 2.66GHz Core i7 920, $562 for the 2.93GHz Core i7 940, and $999 for the 3.20GHz Core i7 Extreme 965.  These prices are for system builders buying in 1,000 minimum quantities; retail costs have not been announced.

“[We'll] just say that the quad-core Core i7 which we set to 2.66GHz then 3GHz crunched through benchmarks as effectively as the clock frequency suggests. It’s a similar story with triple-channel DDR 3 running at 1066MHz. The low clock speed hurts latency, while the integrated memory controller and triple-band feature delivers bandwidth like there’s no tomorrow” Register Hardware

What they can say is that there were no real surprises.  The quadcore Core i7 they tested with performed as well as could be expected, both at native clock speed and when overclocked to 3GHz, while Intel’s RAM memory controller – now integrated into the CPU itself – performed admirably and were only hampered by the RAM speed itself.

ASUS also include an external display called the OC Palm, which looks like it should be a Vista SideShow device but in actual fact is to adjust overclocking settings on-the-fly.  In all, though, they rate the P6T Deluxe as capable but not especially exciting, covering all the bases but certainly not the must-have Core i7 motherboard.

The Core i7 920, which Intel describe as mainstream, will run at 2.66GHz, while the performance Core i7 940 takes that up to 2.93GHz.  Finally the Core i7 965 Extreme will run at 3.20GHz.  All use the LGA1366 socket, have 256KB L2 cache per core and 8MB shared L3 cache.

While individual pricing is still unknown, system builders will apparently be charged $284, $562 and $999 for the 920, 940 and 965 respectively, when ordering in thousand unit quantities. Core i7 will introduce a new architecture to the existing 45nm die platform that the Core 2 Duo processors are currently built on. There will also be an integrated graphics processor and memory controller.

In fact saying it was less than reliable is an understatement: the PCIe slot didn’t work, Intel have locked down the chips to less than their full performance, and there were a variety of other reasons why the Nehalem processor could be excusably less than stellar.  So it comes as an appetite-whetting result to see 20 to 50-percent performance gains over Penryn comparison setups.

“We’ve been told to expect a 20 – 30% overall advantage over Penryn and it looks like Intel is on track to delivering just that in Q4. At 2.66GHz, Nehalem is already faster than the fastest 3.2GHz Penryns on the market today” AnandTech

Power consumption is only increased by a small amount, and that could come in for some fettling later on in the development cycle.  It’s all enough to leave AnandTech mightily excited; their final words are basically a warning to AMD that they’ll need something mighty special considering what Intel have up their sleeve.