Intel today unveiled enhancements to its enterprise offerings including improved performance, power management and security across its desktop and server products, and extensions to its 64-bit technology.

The chip giant announced that it will begin shipping an upgraded 64-bit Xeon processor, codenamed Irwindale, that includes a beefed-up L2 cache memory that it claims delivers up to 18 per cent greater performance compared to the previous version.

The new Xeon processors, which are compatible with previous Xeons, offer power saving features with Demand Based Switching, enhanced performance and flexibility with support for DDR2-400 memory and PCI Express.

Intel also introduced its IOP333 I/O storage processor based on its Xscale architecture, which offers enhanced Raid 6 storage capabilities.

In addition Intel will "shortly introduce" the Pentium 4 6xx products supporting 64-bit and Hyper-Threading technology for desktop PCs.

The company also outlined plans for its next-generation server platforms designed to support dual-core processors. Within 90 days, Intel said it plans to introduce its Xeon MP processor-based platform with up to 8MB of L3 cache, codenamed Potomac.

It also promised a category of entry-level four-way server platforms using the newly developed Intel Xeon processor MP with 1MB of L2 cache, codenamed Cranford.

Architected for dual-core, these platforms will include a 64-bit Intel Xeon processor MP, a faster system bus, support for PCI Express and DDR2-400 memory and Demand-Based Switching with enhanced Intel Speedstep technology.

The platform will include the Intel E8500 chipset, codenamed Twin Castle, designed specifically to support dual-core processors with a dual-bus technology.

Later this year, Intel promised to deliver thousands of "seed systems" based on dual-core Intel Xeons to end-users and software developers for evaluation.

Abhi Talwalkar, vice president and general manager of Intel's Digital Enterprise Group, said: "We now have 64-bits from top to bottom in our enterprise platforms, extending the success of our existing platforms in these areas."