Intel has introduced its dual-core Xeon Processor 5100 series, previously codenamed Woodcrest.

The processors are the first to take advantage of Intel's Core micro-architecture, promising to deliver up to 135 per cent performance improvements and up to 40 per cent reduction in energy consumption compared to previous Intel server products.

The chips will target the high-volume server, workstation, communications, storage and embedded market segments.

They are designed to take on AMD's Opteron server range of modules, and Intel claims that more than 200 server and workstations incorporating the CPUs will ship from more than 150 manufacturers.

The processors also include Intel Advanced Smart Cache that allows one of two processing units or cores to use the entire memory reservoir if necessary while the other is idle, and Intel Smart Memory Access that can 'hide' memory latency and bottlenecks.

Intel believes that servers based on these products can reduce real estate-associated costs and space, cooling requirements and electrical demand in server data centres while increasing responsiveness, productivity and server uptime.

"The Core micro-architecture is a technical marvel that is driving a new era of power efficiency without compromising on what can only be described as eye-popping dual-core 64-bit performance," said Pat Gelsinger, senior vice president and general manager of Intel's Digital Enterprise Group.

Intel will ship the 5100 series at frequencies up to 3GHz with a 1333MHz front-side bus and 4MB of shared L2 cache or memory reservoir between both cores.

The 3GHz version will ship with a thermal design point (TDP) of 80W with all others rated at just 65W. An even lower voltage version will ship in the third quarter at 2.33GHz and a TDP of just 40W.

Intel has set pricing for the Xeon 5100 series from $209 to $851 in 1,000-unit quantities depending on features.

Additional coverage on our sister publication The Inquirer.