Xeon 5500 Servers

The Intel Xeon 5500 series next generation server processors deliver enhanced, energy-efficient performance for data-intensive business applications. The Multi Core, Dual Socket Processors family is ideally suited for demanding enterprise applications or virtualisation that require intense processing power.

Developed specifically for data-intensive business applications, the multi-core, dual socket family of xeon processors is ideally suited to our CyberStore X55 range of servers, designed for demanding enterprise applications or virtualisation that require intense processing power.

Intel Xeon 5000 Series Rackmount Servers

The Intel Xeon 5500 series next generation server processors deliver enhanced, energy-efficient performance for data-intensive business applications.

The Multi Core, Dual Socket Processors family is ideally suited for demanding enterprise applications or virtualisation that require intense processing power. The latest Intel Xeon processor 5500 / 5600 series and its Nehalem microarchitecture combine new processor and platform architectures to the server market with new memory and I/O subsystems to provide game-changing improvements in server performance, virtualisation, and energy efficiency. This all new next generation advance will cause many server customers to evaluate replacing old single-core servers with a much smaller number of high-performance multi-core Intel Xeon 5500 / 5600 Nehalem processor based servers. These new servers can often pay for themselves in less than 1 year with the savings over previous rackmount server technologies. Maximize I/O performance Improve system efficiency Optimize I/O connectivity for virtualization Accelerate your return on investment on these new servers.

If youre looking to create a balanced system that keeps your business running at the highest levels, we invite you to learn more about how Intel Xeon Server technologies meet your server requirements and provide an accelerated ROI for your critical IT initiatives. The next generation of intelligent server processors. The Intel Xeon processor 5600 series - the next generation of intelligent server processors - automatically regulates power consumption to combine industry-leading energy efficiency with intelligent performance that adapts to your workload. The Intel Xeon processor 5600 series automatically regulates power consumption and intelligently adjusts server performance according to your application needs. You'll get up to 15x performance per server over 2 socket single-core servers, enabling 15:1 server consolidation ratios, up to 95 percent lower energy costs, and an estimated return on investment in 5 months.

The new Intel 5500 (Nehalem) series of server introduces the latest Intel QuickPath Technology (QPI) QPI provides point-to-point high speed paths to distributed shared memory, thus enabling parallel processing performance of the latest Nehalem 5500 series processors. The combination of the latest DDR3 supported memory and PCI Express 2.0 IO slot and the 5500 series processors give outstanding price performance ratio.

Intel’s’ QuickPath Technology (QPI) integrates the memory controller and high-speed interconnect on each of the processor cores linking all other components to deliver:

• Dynamically scalable interconnect bandwidth designed to set loose the full performance of Nehalem, Tukwila, and future generations of Intel multi-core processors
• Outstanding memory performance and flexibility to support leading memory technologies
• Tightly integrated interconnect reliability, availability, and serviceability (RAS) with design-scalable configurations for optimal balance of price, performance, and energy efficiency

The Intel 5500 series of processors offer the following:

Hyper-Threading

Today's Intel Hyper-Threading Technology (Intel HT Technology)¹ delivers thread-level parallelism on each processor resulting in more efficient use of processor resources—higher processing throughput—and improved performance on the multi-threaded software of today and tomorrow. An Intel processor and chipset combined with an OS and BIOS supporting Intel HT Technology allows you to:

Intel Turbo Boost Technology

As an independent and complimentary feature, Intel Hyper-Threading Technology (Intel HT Technology) along with Intel Turbo Boost Technology increases performance of both multi-threaded and single threaded workloads. Intel Turbo Boost Technology is activated when the Operating System (OS) requests the highest processor performance state (P0).
The maximum frequency of Intel Turbo Boost Technology is dependent on the number of active cores. The amount of time the processor spends in the Intel Turbo Boost Technology state depends on the workload and operating environment, providing the performance you need, when and where you need it.
Any of the following can set the upper limit of Intel Turbo Boost Technology on a given workload:

• Number of active cores
• Estimated current consumption
• Estimated power consumption
• Processor temperature

When the processor is operating below these limits and the user's workload demands additional performance, the processor frequency will dynamically increase by 133 MHz on short and regular intervals until the upper limit is met or the maximum possible upside for the number of active cores is reached. Conversely, when any of the limits are reached or exceeded, the processor frequency will automatically decrease by 133 MHz until the processor is again operating within its limits.

As a result of the latest Intel Xeon 5500 series processors, Intel’s’ QuickPath Technology(QPI), rejuvenated Hyper-Threading and the Intel Turbo Boost Technology, the new generation of Intel servers and Intel High end workstation have vastly increased performance, whilst significantly reducing power requirements. It has been claimed that in various applications the reduced power consumption has offset the server cost with in months. Typical in web and virtualization environments.

Interesting facts…

RAM

For maximum performance only populate 3 banks per processor. Populating more than 3 banks reduces the performance from 1333FSB to 1066FSB of the RAM. If RAM performance is important, increase the size of the DIMs.
For the Basic SKUs E5502, E5504, E5506 and L5506 the max memory speed is 800FSB.
For the standard SKUs E5520, E5530, E5540 and L5520 the max memory speed is 1066FSB.
For the Advanced SKUs X5550, X5560, X5570 and W5580 the max memory speed is 1333FSB.

CPUs

Turbo Boost Technology.

Basic 60/ 80 Watt parts E5502, E5504, E5506 and L 5506 (60 watt) do not have Turbo Boost Technology

Standard 60/ 80 Watt parts E5520, E5530, E5540 and L5520 (60 watt) have a maximum Turbo Boost Increase of 2 SKUs.

Advanced 95 Watt parts X5550, X5560, and X5570 have a maximum Turbo boost increase of 3 SKUs.

Workstation 130 Watt Part W5580 has a maximum Turbo boost increase of 2 SKUs.

NB the above is relative to the no of core that are being utilised and satisfactory CPU cooling is supplied to the CPU. This why a server chassis and board combination, designed by Intel will achieve maximum performance.

The base frequency increase on the Standard CPU SKUs increases x 1 CPU SKU if 3 or 4 cores are being utilised and 2 x CPU SKUs if 1 or 2 Cores are being utilised.

I.e. E5530 base frequency 2.53 GHz 3 or 4 cores being used max performance 2.66 GHz, if 1 or 2 cores being used max performance 2.80 GHz

The base frequency increase on the Advanced CPU SKUs increase x 2 CPU SKU if 3 or 4 cores are being utilised and x 3 CPU SKUs if 1 or 2 Cores are being utilised.

I.e. X5560 base frequency 2.80 GHz 3 or 4 cores being used max performance 3.06 GHz, if 1 or 2 cores being used max performance 3.20 GHz

Intel Xeon 5500 Series Server Processors:

• Intel Xeon Server Processor X5570 (8M Cache, 2.93 GHz, 6.40 GT/s Intel QPI) Quad Core / 8 threads
• Intel Xeon Server Processor X5560 (8M Cache, 2.80 GHz, 6.40 GT/s Intel QPI) 95 Watts Quad Core / 8 threads
• Intel Xeon Server Processor X5550 (8M Cache, 2.66 GHz, 6.40 GT/s Intel QPI) 95 Watts Quad Core / 8 threads
• Intel Xeon Server Processor W5590 (8M Cache, 3.33 GHz, 6.40 GT/s Intel QPI) 30 Watts Quad Core / 8 threads
• Intel Xeon Server Processor W5580 (8M Cache, 3.20 GHz, 6.40 GT/s Intel QPI) 130 Watts Quad Core / 8 threads
• Intel Xeon Server Processor L5530 (8M Cache, 2.40 GHz, 5.86 GT/s Intel QPI) 60 Watts Quad Core / 8 threads
• Intel Xeon Server Processor L5520 (8M Cache, 2.26 GHz, 5.86 GT/s Intel QPI) 60 Watts Quad Core / 8 threads
• Intel Xeon Server Processor L5518 (8M Cache, 2.13 GHz, 5.86 GT/s Intel QPI) 60 Watts Quad Core / 8 threads
• Intel Xeon Server Processor L5508 (8M Cache, 2.00 GHz, 5.86 GT/s Intel QPI) 38 Watts Dual Core / 4 threads
• Intel Xeon Server Processor L5506 (4M Cache, 2.13 GHz, 4.80 GT/s Intel QPI) 60 Watts Quad Core / 4 threads
• Intel Xeon Server Processor E5540 (8M Cache, 2.53 GHz, 5.86 GT/s Intel QPI) 80 Watts Quad Core / 8 threads
• Intel Xeon Server Processor E5530 (8M Cache, 2.40 GHz, 5.86 GT/s Intel QPI) 80 Watts Quad Core / 8 threads
• Intel Xeon Server Processor E5520 (8M Cache, 2.26 GHz, 5.86 GT/s Intel QPI) 80 Watts Quad Core / 8 threads
• Intel Xeon Server Processor E5506 (4M Cache, 2.13 GHz, 4.80 GT/s Intel QPI) 80 Watts Quad Core / 4 threads
• Intel Xeon Server Processor E5504 (4M Cache, 2.00 GHz, 4.80 GT/s Intel QPI) 80 Watts Quad Core / 4 threads
• Intel Xeon Server Processor E5502 (4M Cache, 1.86 GHz, 4.80 GT/s Intel QPI) 80 Watts Dual Core / 2 threads

The Intel Xeon codenamed Nehalem is the newest micro-architecture from Intel. Nehalem is designed to be modular and scalable. To enable this, Intel divided the chip into 2 parts the core and the un-core. The core contains the execution units and associated logic, and L1 and L2 caches. It is designed to be easily replicated for dual core, quad core, and beyond. The un-core is the shared L3 cache, memory controller, and I/0. This new architecture will allow the same processor core to be used in everything from workstations to servers. The number of cores, and the capacity of the un-core can be scaled for the needs of a particular market.Performance Features of the Core.

Nehalem has updated the Core microarchitecure with a number of new features to improve performance:

• More macofusion instructions to improve through put and lower execution latency.
• The Loop Stream Detector (LSD) has been move to after instruction decode so the decode logic can be disabled while the LSD replays mico-ops for each loop iteration. It has also been expanded in size to improve performance by allowing larger loops to be detected.
• Faster synchronization primitives to improve scalability of multi-threaded applications. This also allowed Intel to reintroduce Hyper-Threading.
• Hyper-Threading allows 2 threads to be run at the same time per core. HT allows the core to hide the latency of a single thread thus enabling more effective use of the wide execution engine.
• Turbo Mode allows the processor to opportunistically improve performance by raising the frequency (Overclocking) of the processor when there is thermal and electrical headroom. The magnitude of the frequency improvement is greater as the number of active cores decreases.

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