Intel® Xeon® Processor 5600 Series Overview
Building on the revolutionary design of the
Intel Xeon 5500 Series
micro-architecture, the Intel Xeon 5600 series processors add even more capabilities for high performance computing use. Intel 5600 series processors are available in native quad and six-core versions, and the die size has been shrunk to 32nm, allowing memory performance to improve along with the core count increase. New instruction sets and technologies are integrated directly into the processor as well.
These processors are available at speeds up to 3.33 GHz and up to 12 MB cache, and can utilize up to 1333 MHz DDR3 memory. Here's a quick list of the processors available for your new Aspen Systems purchase today!
| Processor No. | Speed (GHz) | Mem (Ghz) |
Cache | Watts |
| X5680 | 3.33 | 1333 | 12M | 130 |
| X5677 | 3.46 | 1333 | 12M | 130 |
| X5670 | 2.93 | 1333 | 12M | 95 |
| X5667 | 3.06 | 1333 | 12M | 95 |
| X5660 | 2.8 | 1333 | 12M | 95 |
| X5650 | 2.66 | 1333 | 12M | 95 |
| E5640 | 2.66 | 1066 | 12M | 80 |
| E5630 | 2.53 | 1066 | 12M | 80 |
| E5620 | 2.4 | 1066 | 12M | 80 |
| L5640 | 2.26 | 1333 | 12M | 60 |
| L5630 | 2.13 | 1066 | 12M | 40 |
| L5609 | 1.86 | 1066 | 12M | 40 |
Intel Xeon 5600 series processors automatically regulate power consumption and intelligently adjust server performance based on your needs. Enabled by Intel Intelligent Power Technology, these processors shift into the lowest available power state when possible, while Intel Turbo Boost Technology intelligently adjusts performance increases based on computational requirements and environment to give you the perfect blend of power savings and performance.
the 32nm die allows up to 6 cores on the chip
Designed to enable increased security in server deployments, this series also now includes Advanced Encryption Standard New Instructions (AES-NI), which provides hardware-based acceleration for secure transaction servers. And with hardware-based Intel Trusted Execution Technology (Intel), Intel Xeon 5600 series helps guard against malicious software attacks in enterprise and virtual environment deployments as well.
The Intel Xeon 5600 series automatically regulates power consumption and intelligently adjusts server performance according
to your application needs, maximizing both energy efficiency and performance. The secret to this compelling combination is Intel's new 32nm die shrink of the
Intel Xeon 5500
micro-architecture. Featuring Intel Intelligent Power Technology that automatically shifts the CPU and memory into the lowest available power state, while delivering the performance you need as its needed, the Intel Xeon 5600 series with Intel Microarchitecture delivers the same performance as previous-generation servers but uses up to 30 percent less power.
When replacing older computational systems, you can achieve up to a 95 percent reduction in energy costs when consolidating your single-core computational infrastructure into one utilizing the Intel Xeon 5600 series processors.
This ground breaking intelligent server technology features:
- Intel's new 32nm Micro-architecture Nehalem built with second-generation high-k and metal gate transistor technology.
- Intelligent Performance that automatically optimizes performance to fit computational and application requirements and delivers up to 40 percent more performance per watt than Intel Xeon 5500 series.
- Automated Energy Efficiency that scales energy usage to the workload to achieve optimal performance/watt. With new 40 Watt options and lower power DDR3 memory, you can lower your energy costs even further.
- Intel Turbo Boost Technology, together with Intel Intelligent Power Technology, delivers performance on demand, letting processors operate above the rated frequency to speed specific workloads and reduce power consumption during low utilization periods.
- Intel Hyper-Threading Technology benefits from larger caches and massive memory bandwidth, delivering greater throughput and responsiveness for multi-threaded applications.
- Intel QuickPath Technology and an integrated memory controller speed traffic between processors and I/O controllers for bandwidth-intensive applications, delivering up to 4.4x the bandwidth for technical computing.
Here are some highlights of the improvements built into the Intel Xeon 5600 series processors that can help increase the efficiency and performance of your HPC codes.
Intel Turbo Boost Technology
Increase clock speed on fewer cores
Intel Turbo Boost technology delivers performance when and where
it's needed. When the processor is operating below its thermal and electrical limits, and the users workload demands additional performance, the processor clock frequency will dynamically increase by 133 MHz on short and regular intervals until the upper limit is met or the maximum possible upside for the number of active cores is reached.
In situations where less cores per node are used, the Intel Xeon 5600 series processor using Intel® Turbo Boost technology will dynamically clock up the cores that are being used, providing higher speed execution on demand. These speed steps operate above the processors rated frequency.
Intel QuickPath Technology
Dedicated per-processor memory and point-to-point connectivity
To deliver top performance for bandwidth-intensive applications, the
Intel Xeon 5600 series features Intel QuickPath Technology. This new scalable, shared memory architecture delivers
memory bandwidth leadership, and up to 4.4x the bandwidth of
previous-generation processors.
Intel QuickPath Technology is a platform architecture that provides
high-speed (up to 25.6 GB/s), point-to-point connections between
processors, and between processors and the I/O hub. Each processor
has its own dedicated memory that it accesses directly through an
Integrated Memory Controller. In cases where a processor needs to
access the dedicated memory of another processor, it can do so
through a high-speed Intel QuickPath Interconnect (Intel QPI)
that links all the processors.
The Intel
Nehalem
micro-architecture complements the benefits of Intel
QPI by enhancing Intel® Smart Cache with an inclusive shared L3 cache
that boosts performance while reducing traffic to the processor cores.
Intel Intelligent Power Technology
Idle cores can go to near-zero power independently
Within a single server, Intel Intelligent Power Technology minimizes
power consumption when server components are not fully utilized.
Integrated Power Gates allow individual idling
cores to be reduced to near-zero power independent of other operating cores, reducing idle power consumption to 10 watts, versus
16 or 50 watts in prior-generations of Intel processors.
This feature reduces server idle power consumption by up to 50 percent versus the previous generation of two-socket server processors.
Automated power states adjust power based on real-time load
Automated Low-Power States automatically put processor and
memory into the lowest available power states that will meet the
requirements of the current workload. Processors are
enhanced with more and lower CPU power states, and the memory
and I/O controllers have new power management features.
Contact Aspen Systems sales at 1-800-992-9242 for more information about high performance computing systems built with Intel® Xeon® 5600 Series processors today!
