Intel Announces Xeon E7 10-cores, 20 Threads

Need more cores for serious business?

Intel has taken the wraps off of its new Xeon E7-8800/4800/2800 server processors for high-end computing applications, including business intelligence, real-time data analytics and virtualization.

Based on Intel's latest 32nm Sandy Bridge process technology, the new Xeon processors have up to 10 cores with Hyper-Threading, and deliver up to 40 percent greater performance than the previous Xeon 7500 series processor.

The new processor family contains 18 new processors for two-, four- and eight-socket servers, and is expandable to servers with 256 sockets. Intel boasts that a single Xeon processor E7-based server can replace a current 18 dual-core server.

For big tasks, Intel is offering 10 advanced 10-core versions of the chip, led by the E7-8870, E7-4870 and E7-2870, all of which reach 2.4 GHz with a TDP of 130 watts.

The company also announced a low voltage version as well as a frequency-optimized version. The 10-core low-voltage E7-8867L reaches 2.13 GHz with a TDP of 105 watts, while the eight-core frequency-optimized E7-8837 tops out at 2.67 GHz with a TDP of 130 watts.

Intel also added more affordable chip options in the Xeon E3-1200 family. The Xeon processor E7-8800/4800/2800 families range in price from $774 to $4,616 in quantities of 1,000. The Xeon processor E3-1200 family ranges in price from $189 to $612 in quantities of 1,000.