Apple adds new Xeon chips to Xserve line

Apple is to use Intel's new Xeon chips in its Xserve line

Apple has become the latest company to offer Intel's new Xeon chips in its servers. The company will feature the new processors in its next line of Xserve rack-mount servers.

IT buyers will be able to purchase the servers with a pair of Xeons, each running at up to 2.93GHz. The servers will start at £2,399 in the UK.

For an additional cost, users will have the option of adding additional hard drives up to 3TB, or faster, more efficient, solid state drives (SSDs).

Apple claims that the new processors will allow the Xserve models to run at twice the speed of previous systems, with a performance-per-watt improvement of roughly 89 per cent.

"With up to twice the performance, better power efficiency and an innovative SSD drive option, this is the best Xserve we have ever made," said David Moody, worldwide vice president of Mac product marketing at Apple.

Apple has joined the growing list of server vendors to offer the new Intel Xeon chips since the line was formally released last week. Dell, Cisco and HP are among the vendors to feature the new chip in their offerings.