Intel to Ship 10-core CPUs in First Half of 2011

Intel's "Westmere-EX" Xeon processor is expected to ship during this half of 2011.

Thursday an Intel spokesperson said that its upcoming 10-core "Westmere-EX" Xeon processor (pdf) will launch during the first half of 2011. The chip follows Intel's 2010 release of the Nehalem-EX CPU, currently the fastest Intel server processor on the market sporting up to eight cores.

The new Xeons will bring additional security features to the table including Advanced Encryption Standard-New Instructions (AES-NI) for faster encryption and decryption of data. The processor itself will be manufactured using 32nm processing technology whereas the current Nehalem-EX was made using the 45nm process.

The Intel spokesperson added that Westmere-EX will be targeted at high-end servers--those with up to eight sockets--in data centers maintaining large databases and other applications. Each physical core will run up to two threads, providing servers with the ability to run up to 160 threads simultaneously (8 processors @ 20 threads each).

In addition to the improved design, the new Xeon will be socket-compatible with existing Nehalem-EX chips, making it easy for customers to upgrade server processors. Two-socket systems running on Westmere-EX chips will also support up to 2 TB of memory.