Intel boosts Xeon E5 chip performance

Intel has unveiled the latest edition of its chip platform for datacentres, the Xeon E5-2600 version 3, promising triple the performance from the last generation.

Speaking at an event ahead of the Intel Developers Forum this week, head of datacentres Diane Bryant said the Haswell-EP update to the Xeon E5-2600 platform - also known as Grantley - will boost performance while cutting power use, and give IT admins more information to help automate their datacentre systems.

"We're excited about the role this platform is going to play as we all collectively rearchitect the datacentre from static to dynamic and from proprietary to open standards," Bryant said.

Intel claims the chip which is used across servers, storage and networking hardware has triple the performance of the last generation, built on the Ivy Bridge architecture. It also supports up to 18 cores, 50 per cent more than previously, with a top frequency of 3.7GHz.

It's the first such processor to support DDR4 memory, with a subsequent 40 per cent increase in bandwidth over DDR3 and improved power efficiency - up to 20 per cent according to Crucial.

This helps the Xeon E5-2600 v3 platform to slash power use by as much as 35 per cent. Bryant said the platform "takes another big leap in energy efficient performance, as you've come to expect us to do with each new generation of our family".

Xeon E5-2600 v3 also features new telemetry, including more sensors to make it easier for IT admins to understand what's happening in their system. If system attributes are made more visible, placement of applications can be automated depending on their requirements, be that security, compliance or performance.

This "active and intelligent orchestration" is allowed thanks to more data being collected on the system, Bryant said. While the previous generation system had three power and data points, the Xeon E5-2600 v3 has 22 made available via the Node Manager 3.0 firmware. "With all of this data now, it's possible for IT to view the entire system, and understand and control it," she said.

Intel will ship 35 different Xeon E5-2600 v3 SKUs, and is continuing to work with major customers to create bespoke versions of the chip that are customised for their datacentres. Intel had 15 such customised versions last year, and that's more than doubled to 35 now, with more on the way.

Across server, storage and networking, Intel's hardware partners have 65 systems ready to ship and will have more than 300 available in the next two months.