Intel has finally launched its Nehalem-EX, unveiled in February 2009, as part of the Xeon 7500 range. Made up of 2.3 billion transistors (2 times more than a Gulftown!) and with a 24 MB L3 cache, these processors also have a four channel memory controller.
The socket is the LGA1567 used by the Xeon MPs, necessary for configurations of 4 processors and more. Just 3 Xeon 7500 models have 8 active cores, a 4th 8-core being an X6550 limited to bi-Socket:
- X7560: 2.26 GHz, 24 MB of L3, TDP 130W, $3692
- X7550: 2.00 GHz, 18 MB of L3, TDP 130W, $2729
- L7555: 1.86 GHz, 24 MB of L3, TDP 95W, $3157
- X6550: 2.00 GHz, 18 MB of L3, TDP 130W, $2461
Note that there are other versions with 6 or even 4 active cores. The most observant among you will have noted that the clocks are relatively low in spite of the high TDPs: remember the Nehalem-Exs are at 45nm and not 32nm!
