Intel says Mac Pro-bound Harpertown Xeons set speed records

[AppleInsider]

As promised, Intel Corp. this week formally announced its first round of 45-nanometer microprocessors, including a new family of Mac Pro-bound Xeon chips that have achieved a series of world speed records.

Dubbed the biggest transistor advancements in 40 years by Intel Co-Founder Gordon Moore, the processors are the first to use Intel's Hafnium-based high-k metal gate (Hi-k) formula, which alleviates the wasteful electricity leaks that threaten the pace of future computer innovation.

The 15 new Xeon processors are also the first to be manufactured on the Santa Clara-based company's 45-nanometer (nm) manufacturing process, which boasts nearly twice the transistor density of previous chips built on the company's 65nm technology. In addition to increasing computer performance and saving energy use, the new Xeons also eliminate eco-unfriendly lead and, in 2008, halogen materials.

These breakthroughs, Intel says, clear the path for the chipmaker to design products that are 25 percent smaller than previous versions and, thus, more cost-effective, as well as the ability next year to pursue new ultra mobile and consumer electronics "system on chip" opportunities.

"This feat, coupled with our industry-leading architectures, means faster and sleeker computers, longer battery life and better energy efficiency, said Intel chief executive Paul Otellini. "Our objective is to bring consumers a new class of computers delivering a full Internet experience in ever-smaller, more portable form factors."

Among the 15 new Xeons are 12 new 5400 series quad-core chips that feature clock speeds ranging from 2GHz up to 3.20GHz, with front side bus speeds (FSB) up to 1600MHz, and cache sizes of 12MB. Meanwhile, three new 5200 series dual-core chips boast clock speeds of up to 3.40GHz, an FSB of up to 1600MHz, and cache sizes of 6MB.

The 45nm Hi-k Quad-Core Intel Xeon 5400 series, codename Harpertown and due to turn up in the next Mac Pro workstations from Mac maker Apple Inc., set a number of world records on key industry-standard benchmarks, according to Intel.



A 5400-series equipped HP Proliant DL380 G5 Server set a new TPC-C mark with a score of 273,666 tpmC and an SAP-SD record with a score of 2449 SD-Users.

Similarly, a Dell PowerEdge 2950 server running BEA JRockit JVM delivered a record-breaking SPECjbb2005 result of 303130 BOPS. Dell also set a new virtualization performance record on VMmark benchmark running VMWare ESX Server with a score of 8.47 at 6 tiles.

Additionally, the 5400 series chipset-based platform with 1600 MHz Front Side Bus set new world records on key high-performance computing and bandwidth-intensive benchmarks including the SPECfp_rate2006 benchmark that measures floating point throughput performance. World records were also achieved in key HPC benchmarks, including Fluent, LS-Dyna, SPECOMP2001 and Abaqus.

The 45nm Hi-k Xeon processors, which range in price from $177 to $1,279 in quantities of 1,000, also extend Intel's performance-per-watt leadership by delivering an improvement of 38 percent over its previous-generation Quad-Core Xeon 5300 Series processors used in the current iteration of Apple's Mac Pro systems.

The move from 65nm to 45nm involves more than just a shrink of current chip designs, Intel explains -- the processors include such additional features as new Intel Streaming SIMD Extensions 4 (SSE4), which are 47 new instructions that speed up workloads including video encoding for high-definition and photo manipulation, as well as key HPC and enterprise applications.



As was reported by AppleInsider last month, Apple plans to be amongst the first PC manufacturers to adopt the new 5400 Harpertown series as part of an upcoming revision to its professional Mac Pro workstations. Specifically, the Mac maker is said to be awaiting from Intel ample supplies of its top-of-the-line 3.2GHz quad-core chips for a new 8-core Mac Pro.

Apple is expected to introduce the new systems any time between mid-November and mid-January.

[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]

[noirdesir]

Out of these 15 models which do you think will Apple offer and in which configurations:
http://files.macbidouille.com/news/200711/xeon.jpg

[kresh]

The nails are starting to be pounded into AMD's coffin!

[Frank777]

Originally Posted by AppleInsider

Apple is expected to introduce the new systems any time between mid-November and mid-January.

Any chance of narrowing that down a bit?

[Bageljoey]

Originally Posted by AppleInsider

A 5400-series equipped HP Proliant DL380 G5 Server a new TPC-C mark with a score of 273,666 tpmC and an SAP-SD record with a score of 2449 SD-Users.
Similarly, a Dell PowerEdge 2950 server running BEA JRockit JVM delivered a record-breaking SPECjbb2005 result of 303130 BOPS 8.47 at 6 tiles.

This is SO good news!

...I think.

[akabaka]

Well, Apple either needs to refresh the Mac Pros or change the description on their store page:

Choose two 3.0GHz quad-core “Clovertown” processors — the fastest Quad-Core Intel Xeon available — for groundbreaking, 8-core power.

Come on, Apple, you don't want to be called a liar, do ya?

[Lemon Bon Bon.]

Come on Apple, what's the the lag in announcement?

Impatiently...

Lemon Bon Bon.

[Phizz]

Originally Posted by Lemon Bon Bon.

Come on Apple, what's the the lag in announcement?

Impatiently...

Lemon Bon Bon.

Maybe tomorrow? They like to introduce new/revised hardware on a Tuesday, don't they?

It would be pretty crap if they waited until January...

[Frank777]

Aren't all the PC guys announcing their new stuff this week? Apple may wait to ensure they can hog the limelight for themselves.

Of course, if the Mac Pro rev contains something revolutionary, it may actually be a good idea to announce now and embarrass the competition.

[PB]

Originally Posted by Phizz

Maybe tomorrow? They like to introduce new/revised hardware on a Tuesday, don't they?

Which sometimes is a Wednesday, or even a Thursday.

Originally Posted by Phizz

It would be pretty crap if they waited until January...

It would not be the first time.

[orange whip]

Originally Posted by kresh

The nails are starting to be pounded into AMD's coffin!

...and that's a good thing because?? surely it is better to have competition in the marketplace otherwise intel will become lazy.

it is the same with Apple. It needs stong competitiion in order to drive quality and innovation.

[backtomac]

Originally Posted by orange whip

...and that's a good thing because?? surely it is better to have competition in the marketplace otherwise intel will become lazy.

It isn't a good thing in my opinion but it's also a growing reality. Intel have the mid and high end processor market all to themselves. They are leaving the low end desktop market to AMD with crappy margins. I don't think AMD will last long there.

[melgross]

Originally Posted by Frank777

Any chance of narrowing that down a bit?

That is narrowed down.

[melgross]

Originally Posted by Phizz

Maybe tomorrow? They like to introduce new/revised hardware on a Tuesday, don't they?

It would be pretty crap if they waited until January...

That's not so far away. What's the rush? Are you going to put your money down the minute it's announced? If Apple just announces 45nm machines, it won't be a big deal.

What I'd like to see, and I'd rather wait until Macworld, if necessary, is an announcement of Express 2, and other new technologies that are just now coming on line, but that no one else has.

I don't want the same old generation of machine we've had for years, with a simple cpu upgrade. If that's what happens, we'll likely have to wait even longer for something new, possibly not until Nehalen, late next year.

[ascii]

They may sell more Mac Pro than in the past, simply because the glossy screen on the iMac has eliminated it from a lot of pro applications. I am considering getting a Mac Pro when previously I have always made do with iMacs.

[shanmugam]

Originally Posted by melgross

That's not so far away. What's the rush? Are you going to put your money down the minute it's announced? If Apple just announces 45nm machines, it won't be a big deal.

What I'd like to see, and I'd rather wait until Macworld, if necessary, is an announcement of Express 2, and other new technologies that are just now coming on line, but that no one else has.

I don't want the same old generation of machine we've had for years, with a simple cpu upgrade. If that's what happens, we'll likely have to wait even longer for something new, possibly not until Nehalen, late next year.

Mac Pro will be updated as much as CPUs available from intel, thats what i read from news. Mel, please forget PPC days, can?

[melgross]

Originally Posted by shanmugam

Mac Pro will be updated as much as CPUs available from intel, thats what i read from news. Mel, please forget PPC days, can?

What are you talking about?

The real world shows that Apple is not likely to be the first out of the dock with a new chip.

The only time they did that with Intel, was when they came out with their first machines, and needed to prove that they could handle the transition properly.

It took months for Apple to release the 3 GHz Xeon machine. In fact, they had NO new Xeon machine until they could get the special 3Ghz model from Intel. We were all wondering where the new Mac Pro was. Do you remember that, or not?

In fact, Apple has often released Intel machines after others have.

While I don't pretend to know what Apple will do, I know what I would prefer. The idea of being first by a couple of months, or just pulling even isn't such a big deal. It really won't make that much of a difference in sales. Pro's won't buy the machine now anyway, even if it is announced, because it may be buggy.

So, I WOULD rather Apple waited a bit, if they can give a NEW machine, and not just a minor (which is really what it is, according to pre-release testing) chip upgrade.

[lssmit02]

Will the new chips be pin compatible with the existing mac pros?

[kresh]

Originally Posted by orange whip

...and that's a good thing because?? surely it is better to have competition in the marketplace otherwise intel will become lazy.

it is the same with Apple. It needs stong competitiion in order to drive quality and innovation.

I did not say that this was a good thing. I was simply stating a fact. I also believe this is bad for the consumer in the long run.

The refreshing thing is that now Intel is burying AMD through technical innovation instead of monopolistic behavior with OEM's.

[melgross]

Originally Posted by lssmit02

Will the new chips be pin compatible with the existing mac pros?

Yes, they are.

[shanmugam]

Originally Posted by melgross

What are you talking about?

The real world shows that Apple is not likely to be the first out of the dock with a new chip.

The only time they did that with Intel, was when they came out with their first machines, and needed to prove that they could handle the transition properly.

It took months for Apple to release the 3 GHz Xeon machine. In fact, they had NO new Xeon machine until they could get the special 3Ghz model from Intel. We were all wondering where the new Mac Pro was. Do you remember that, or not?

In fact, Apple has often released Intel machines after others have.

While I don't pretend to know what Apple will do, I know what I would prefer. The idea of being first by a couple of months, or just pulling even isn't such a big deal. It really won't make that much of a difference in sales. Pro's won't buy the machine now anyway, even if it is announced, because it may be buggy.

So, I WOULD rather Apple waited a bit, if they can give a NEW machine, and not just a minor (which is really what it is, according to pre-release testing) chip upgrade.

if my memory is correct, Core Duo Yonah and at least one of the model of Xeon and Core 2 Extreme 2.60 (mobile) given exclusive access to apple first than any other vendor ...

i agree it will take until Jan MWSF, if mac mini, mac & mac pro will be redesigned and upgraded ...

[palegolas]

Originally Posted by AppleInsider

...These breakthroughs, Intel says, clear the path for the chipmaker to design products that are 25 percent smaller than previous versions and, thus, more cost-effective, as well as the ability next year to pursue new ultra mobile and consumer electronics "system on chip" opportunities.

So it's the next year waiting game again? Perhaps this is what Apple is awaiting in order to really bring to life a compact portable. Good news.

[sequitur]

Originally Posted by shanmugam

if my memory is correct, Core Duo Yonah and at least one of the model of Xeon and Core 2 Extreme 2.60 (mobile) given exclusive access to apple first than any other vendor ...

i agree it will take until Jan MWSF, if mac mini, mac & mac pro will be redesigned and upgraded ...

What do you think the chances are that Apple will use the new 45nm chips in Mac Mini and iMac's? And would Apple do it at the same time as in the Mac Pro or wait until the dust (MacPro) clears?

I wonder if the new chips (using less power) mean that the Nano is in the near future.

[gugy]

Tomorrow or Wednesday, it's coming. I can feel it! Mac Pro now!!!!!!!!!

[shanmugam]

Originally Posted by sequitur

What do you think the chances are that Apple will use the new 45nm chips in Mac Mini and iMac's? And would Apple do it at the same time as in the Mac Pro or wait until the dust (MacPro) clears?

I wonder if the new chips (using less power) mean that the Nano is in the near future.

45nm desktop parts in large quantities not available until middle of 2008 though there is one QX9650 extreme chip available, i am saying more on the products refersh as whole Mac Mini, Mac, Mac Pro

i meant Mac (not iMac) aka the gMac, xMac, Mac Tower ...

[onlooker]

I have a credit card with nothing on it sitting here just waiting for MWSF if Apple can deliver something with some serious graphics performance.
I seriously expect a whole new Mac Pro design, or two at MWSF.

[melgross]

Originally Posted by shanmugam

if my memory is correct, Core Duo Yonah and at least one of the model of Xeon and Core 2 Extreme 2.60 (mobile) given exclusive access to apple first than any other vendor ...

i agree it will take until Jan MWSF, if mac mini, mac & mac pro will be redesigned and upgraded ...

The Yonah was the chip I was talking about. That was the first chip Apple needed, to show that they could come through.

The only other chip that Apple had any real advance of, was the 3GHz Xenon I also mentioned.

All other times, either Apple announced new upgrades at the same time, or afterwards, sometimes by months.

There have been rumors that Apple was paying Intel extra so that they could hoard the new 3.2GHz Xenons, but so far, there is no evidence of that.

I would rather see a new machine with the new chips a couple of months after, than the old machine with the new chips now.

[vinea]

Originally Posted by melgross

That's not so far away. What's the rush? Are you going to put your money down the minute it's announced? If Apple just announces 45nm machines, it won't be a big deal.

What I'd like to see, and I'd rather wait until Macworld, if necessary, is an announcement of Express 2, and other new technologies that are just now coming on line, but that no one else has.

I don't want the same old generation of machine we've had for years, with a simple cpu upgrade. If that's what happens, we'll likely have to wait even longer for something new, possibly not until Nehalen, late next year.

SSE4 would give current purchasers a bit of extra life so even just a Penryn bump is worthwhile. No way Apple is waiting for Nehalem.

40% improvement in codecs that use SSE4 and 25%=75% VM improvements is nice too.

Why wouldn't Apple do Seaburg and PCI 2.0? In any case I think there are already 2.0 motherboards out there from Tyan and ASUS with Seaburg.

The only thing I see Apple holding out for is chip volume.

[IanW]

Originally Posted by vinea

SSE4 would give current purchasers a bit of extra life so even just a Penryn bump is worthwhile. No way Apple is waiting for Nehalem.

40% improvement in codecs that use SSE4 and 25%=75% VM improvements is nice too.

Why wouldn't Apple do Seaburg and PCI 2.0? In any case I think there are already 2.0 motherboards out there from Tyan and ASUS with Seaburg.

The only thing I see Apple holding out for is chip volume.

Chip Volumes are there, HP/Dell etc have announced machines with them, and if you call up and ask for 400 servers with quad processors, you're not getting a no you can't have that.

At the moment the Mac Pro at the bottom end is very poor value compared to the same price Imac, (i.e 2.8Ghz and a "free" 24 inch monitor.

yes it's glossy, but that's the only down side..

I expect an anncouncement soon from Apple on the new Mac pro's at least a speed bump/price adjustment if Penryn is not coming before January.

[vinney57]

mel, many PC manufacturers ANNOUNCED the chips before Apple but they actually shipped at the same time. In fact the PC shipments were token while Apple had reasonable supplies. I would expect the same again.

[melgross]

Originally Posted by vinea

SSE4 would give current purchasers a bit of extra life so even just a Penryn bump is worthwhile. No way Apple is waiting for Nehalem.

40% improvement in codecs that use SSE4 and 25%=75% VM improvements is nice too.

Why wouldn't Apple do Seaburg and PCI 2.0? In any case I think there are already 2.0 motherboards out there from Tyan and ASUS with Seaburg.

The only thing I see Apple holding out for is chip volume.

I'm not saying anywhere that Apple isn't going to go to Penyrn. Of course they will.

What I did say is that I'd rather see an upgraded machine design come out in January WITH Penyrn, than a simple CPU upgrade now, which would make it more difficult for Apple to replace it in the next two or three months with a new design. I'd like to see Express 2. But you know how Apple is with Mobos. They are slow to change. Meaning that a new design might have to wait for, at the earliest, the ADC, or possibly, Nehalen, if they simply upgrade with a new chip right now.

I would also think that after last years criticism of Apple's Macworld introduction of the iPhone to the exclusion of almost everything else, they may want to provide more computer introductions this year.

The preliminary tests of these new processors on the tech sites have proven to be disappointing. While some functions are indeed noticeably faster, many others are only by a few percent. SSE4 advantages will, in many cases, have to wait for software to be coded for the new functionality. That will take months for much software.

[melgross]

Originally Posted by vinney57

mel, many PC manufacturers ANNOUNCED the chips before Apple but they actually shipped at the same time. In fact the PC shipments were token while Apple had reasonable supplies. I would expect the same again.

That only happened a couple of times. And Apple themselves often announced, only to not deliver some models (usually the higher end ones) weeks, or even a month, or so, later.

[Multimedia]

I'm thinking Wednesday November 14 due to Monday being Veterans' Day a national holiday. If it isn't Wednesday then I am clueless when it will be before January 15. Early December? I'm clueless anyway. But I like to post my guess because it makes me feel like I am accomplishing something.

I'll be buying the top tier with a 16GB kit from a third party - probably Omni Tech via Ramseeker.com for about $999 (they say).

[melgross]

Originally Posted by Multimedia

I'm thinking Wednesday November 14 due to Monday being Veterans' Day a national holiday. If it isn't Wednesday then I am clueless when it will be before January 15. Early December? I'm clueless anyway. But I like to post my guess because it makes me feel like I am accomplishing something.

I'll be buying the top tier with a 16GB kit from a third party - probably Omni Tech via Ramseeker.com for about $999 (they say).

If you haven't noticed, we're all clueless. We just pretend we aren't.

[mdriftmeyer]

Originally Posted by kresh

The nails are starting to be pounded into AMD's coffin!

No they're not. They're making great strides at the high end.

http://www.amd.com/us-en/Corporate/V...121775,00.html

http://www.amd.com/us-en/Corporate/V...121853,00.html

http://ati.amd.com/products/streamprocessor/specs.html

AMD FireStream™ 9170: Industry's First GPU with Double-Precision Floating Point
AMD FireStream 9170 Specifications

Features

* Powered by next-generation ATI GPU from AMD
* Parallel processing architecture with 320 stream cores
* Up to 500 GFLOPs single precision performance
* 2GB GDDR3 on-board memory
* Double Precision Floating Point
* PCIe 2.0 x16 interface
* < 150W power consumption
* Memory export
* BIOS settings optimized for stream processing
* API and OS Support
* Windows XP, XP64
* Linux 32 and Linux 64

System Requirements

* PCI Express® based server or workstation with available x16 lane graphics slot
* 500W or greater power supply
* 512MB of system memory

Optimized for Computation

* Double-precision floating point for scientific and engineering codes
* 2GB on-board memory
* 320 stream cores drive up to 500 GFLOPS single-precision performance
* Asynchronous DMA, allowing data transfers without interrupting streams processor or CPU

Accelerating data-parallel algorithms in a variety of applications

* Seismic processing
* Financial analysis
* Engineering analysis
* Rendering
* Computational chemistry
* Genetic research
* Physics
* Video editing
* Security

AMD Warranty and Support

* Enterprise-level support
* Three year limited product repair/replacement warranty
* Toll-free phone and email access to technical support team

AMD FireStream stream processors deliver the tremendous parallel processing power of the GPU to compute-intensive applications for scientists, engineers and consumers. Using this leading-edge technology, developers can dramatically increase the performance of their critical algorithms, allowing users to get faster results or work on larger problems.

AMD leverages its expertise in CPUs, GPUs and software to deliver stream processing hardware solutions along with a comprehensive software development stack. Fortune 1000 companies, leading software developers, and academic institutions are demonstrating today that stream computing is the key to tremendous performance in a variety of applications.

The AMD FireStream 9170 provides the industry's first double-precision floating point capability on a GPU. With 2GB GDDR3 memory on board and single-precision performance of up to 500 GFLOPS, it is ideal for the most demanding compute-intensive, data-parallel tasks.

Using ground-breaking 55nm process technology, even this large-memory board consumes less than 150W, making it easy to deploy in a variety of server and workstation packages.

AMD FireStream SDK: Open systems approach drives adoption
The AMD FireStream SDK delivers all the tools developers need to create and optimize applications on stream processors. Developers can begin with Brook+, an AMD-enhanced and supported implementation of Brook, the popular open-source C-level language and compiler.

[donebylee]

Originally Posted by melgross

What I did say is that I'd rather see an upgraded machine design come out in January WITH Penyrn, than a simple CPU upgrade now, which would make it more difficult for Apple to replace it in the next two or three months with a new design. I'd like to see Express 2. But you know how Apple is with Mobos. They are slow to change. Meaning that a new design might have to wait for, at the earliest, the ADC, or possibly, Nehalen, if they simply upgrade with a new chip right now.

So you don't believe the rumors that came out earlier about Apple having a new design for the Mac Pro already to go-supposedly just waiting on the announcement and sufficient quantities?

Anyway you look at it, if we don't see a new Mac Pro by the end of the week, I don't think we will see anything more from Apple until MWSF. As far as I can see, this is probably the last opportunity for any significant upgrades until next year. If Apple doesn't jump on the Penryn bandwagon now, I think we are all waiting for another two months minimum.

[shanmugam]

http://www.intel.com/products/proces...chart/xeon.htm

http://media.corporate-ir.net/media_..._list11_07.pdf

combined specs & price

45-nm technology
------------------------
X5482 45 nm 12 MB L2¹ 3.2 GHz 1600 MHz 150W DP $1279
X5472 45 nm 12 MB L2¹ 3.00 GHz 1600 MHz 120W DP $958
X5460 45 nm 12 MB L2¹ 3.16 GHz 1333 MHz 120W DP $1172
X5450 45 nm 12 MB L2¹ 3.00 GHz 1333 MHz 120W DP $851
E5472 45 nm 12 MB L2¹ 3.00 GHz 1600 MHz 80W DP $1022
E5462 45 nm 12 MB L2¹ 2.80 GHz 1600 MHz 80W DP $797
E5450 45 nm 12 MB L2¹ 3.00 GHz 1333 MHz 80W DP $915
E5440 45 nm 12 MB L2¹ 2.83 GHz 1333 MHz 80W DP $690
E5430 45 nm 12 MB L2¹ 2.66 GHz 1333 MHz 80W DP $455


150 Watts, that is one hell of HOT machine! it will be better to go with E series!

[backtomac]

Originally Posted by mdriftmeyer

No they're not. They're making great strides at the high end.

I hope you're right but are those shipping products?

From what I've read Intel are holding back with Penryn clock speeds because AMD simply isn't competitive. At anand they feel penryn could be taken to 4 ghz without much effort at all.

We need AMD as competition for Intel, but wishing for won't make it so. AMD need to step up and deliver products that meet or exceed what Intel are making and they need to do it now. Where is Phenom and Barcelona?

[Bregalad]

If nothing else the Mac Pro needs an update because it's almost a year and a half old and it's stock specs are anything but pro. 1GB of stock RAM is an embarrassment when $800 PCs are shipping with 3GB. The same holds for shipping a "pro" machine with a 250GB HD and a video card that was considered low end back in mid 2006 when the Mac Pro first shipped.

Apple appears to have no clue about desktop computers whatsoever. They have a great idea for a miniature computer (Mac mini) and then make it so small that its performance is seriously restricted and its price far too high for what you get. The iMac is a nice box for those who like having Steve Jobs choose a display for you, but the current generation is a prime example of style over substance. The specs for everything but the CPU are decidedly low end while the price is typical Apple. Unfortunately the reliability has been anything but typical Apple so the current iMac is to be avoided.

C'mon Apple you've proven that you can make fantastic notebook computers and sell them like hotcakes. It should be simple to make a decent desktop at a competitive price.

[mdriftmeyer]

Originally Posted by backtomac

I hope you're right but are those shipping products?

From what I've read Intel are holding back with Penryn clock speeds because AMD simply isn't competitive. At anand they feel penryn could be taken to 4 ghz without much effort at all.

We need AMD as competition for Intel, but wishing for won't make it so. AMD need to step up and deliver products that meet or exceed what Intel are making and they need to do it now. Where is Phenom and Barcelona?

The card will no doubt be similar to this one:

http://www.nvidia.com/object/tesla_tech_specs.html

without needing to be it's own Server and the Compilers are open with that other link I referenced.

From Intel C/C++ to GCC and more.

Regarding Barcelona:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...name=Barcelona

Doesn't look like Phenom will be far behind:

http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=149

Newegg doesn't have them up yet. I'm betting they'll have to wait until they can get the Phenom in stock.

The motherboards will support the FireStream 9170. With PCI express 2.0 onboard of course.