Intel is expected to announce the "Dunnington" processor later this month, the first six-core processor and last of its Penryn-class chips. Intel on September 15 is expected to roll out the Intel Xeon 7400 series Dunnington processor targeted at the server market, the final member of the "Penryn" family of processors, according to sources at server vendors. Penryn will be followed by the Nehalem microarchitecture, due to appear initially as the Core i7 processor in the fourth quarter. Server vendors announcing products will include Sun Microsystems, Hewlett-Packard, and Dell, according to Intel senior vice presiden Pat Gelsinger, speaking at the Intel Developer Forum last month. Other server makers such as IBM and Unisys are also expected to have systems. The Xeon 7400 boasts significantly better performance due to its large 16MB cache memory and half a dozen cores. Intel "Dunnington" Xeon 7400 is the first 6-core processor (Credit: Brooke Crothers) Dunnington is also one of the first Intel chips to have a monolithic design (Nehalem will too). In other words, all six cores will be on one piece of silicon. To date, for any processor having more than two cores, Intel has put two separate pieces of silicon--referred to as die--inside of one chip package. Intel has described the processor as follows: "Dunnington is the first IA (Intel Architecture) processor with six cores, is based on the 45nm high-k process technology, and has large shared caches." Link: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-10032313-64.html
intel had announced dunington a while ago http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xeon#Dunnington_-_with_6_cores also just letting you know http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Nehalem...roarchitecture)
Well, to be honest, other than the obvious Server based applications, and things like video transcoding/encoding, and benchmarking, the six core will probably yield relatively non-existant performance increases. Nehalem will be a "logical 8-core processor", as it will utilize hyperthreading. This is essentially an efficient, simple way of increasing performance, but only in applications that'll support the multi-threading. This is a similar thing to the PS3 "Core" processing unit, however due to the nature of PS3 applications (games) they can be configured to run off all the available threads. Nehalem excites me much more, as it's not only a big performance boost, but a very new core architecture. Too bad it'll be mid next year before the "average-joe" models are released at an appropriate price.
The latest and greatest have always been mainly aimed at hardcore enthusiasts and benchmarking pros who want to push the boundaries of possibility. In terms of dunnington, the XEON processors have always had a particular use, that's not quite as enthusiast orientated as other new tech, such as Nehalm. 6 Cores in the terms they are meant to be used isn't so impressive for me. I like to use my hardware for gaming, and there is more to be gained out of a Skulltrail setup. However, For most of us, we don't get much "bang for the buck" going with these newly released, or soon to be released products. If nothing else, there is always the wait for third party hardware/software to catch up to maximize usage of the new tech. Chances are, if it's the "best" or close to it, you're paying way too much for it. A Perfect example is the recent GPU releases with the 4870s and GTX 280s. Sure the performance potential is there, but unless you're playing Crysis on 1900x1200 with max settings and max AA/trilinear, there is little noticeable change. Afterall, at the end of the day, you really only need 30 FPS to have the game look playable, so who cares about having it at 140FPS The best part about Nehalm and other soon-to-be released products is that we can expect price drops elsewhere. Like LiveEvil said though, it will be awhile before the full line is released and the average enthusiast builder can pick one up for a decent price. I will agree that it's always exciting to see what new tech is actually out there... What crazy things engineers are thinking up. When the old Conroes hit the 4ghz wall (well, not for overclockers), and AMD started to catch up with Intel, Intel surprised everyone by redeveloping their mobile technology into the Core2duo series we know today. That was a gigantic advancement which lowered power consumption and thus heat, as well as creating a new price/performance ratio that was unheard of. I am always looking forward to that next big release. I just won't be buying it
Erm, okay. I don't know what you know, that I don't know, but I'm sure a 6 core Xeon, on a standard single socket 775 board will have better gains than dual quads on a ridiculously overpriced and underperforming platform that is Skulltrail. Also, Phenom barely matched (and in some cases, didn't) the Conroe chips, and at the prices they were charging, were still way behind. The Penryn's were simply Intel's Coup De Gras on the lagging company. Also, I don't know about you, but I certainly wouldn't play a game at 30fps. I, as a rule, like to have VSync turned on. If the game can't run at a relatively consistent 60fps, I'm certainly not playing it.
