Introduction

The arms race continues. Today, we are taking a look at Intel’s latest weapon, dual quad-core Intel Xeon X5365 processors. The platform has affectionately been dubbed the V8 platform by Intel as you’ve effectively got eight cores of processing power available at your disposal. Quad-core Xeon processors have been available for Intel since the end of last year, while the Xeon X5365 is available in select systems today and broad availability is expected in Q3’07.

Back in the day, a car with a V-8 engine got everyone’s attention; now, you need at least 12, or maybe 16 cylinders to get us interested. Similarly, only a year or two ago, having more than one CPU in a computer was out of the reach of an ordinary consumer. Advances in both technical manufacturing and design have played a part in allowing for this power growth, but the software engineers are also to thank for writing code that makes the best use of this power. Within the past 18 months, the growth in computing power has shattered Gordon Moore’s famous law. This has come through more efficient computing, not just faster computing.

Will we get to the point where we can have too much power? With cars, I’ll tell you that having nearly 300 horsepower in stop-and-go San Francisco traffic doesn’t help anyone except the gas companies. With airplanes, transportation at over mach 1 could not be sustained as evidenced by the retirement of the Concord. Well, the timing of the V8 comes on the heels of Microsoft Vista.

We’re playing with fire today.

Excel 2007 is eight-core aware

Intel Xeon X5365 Quick Specs
Core:	Clovertown
Core Frequency:	3.0GHz
System Bus Frequency	1333MHz
TDP	150W
Stepping	B-3
# of CPU Cores	4
L2 Cache	8MB (2x4MB)
Core to bus ratio limit	1:9
Max processor input voltage	1.4125V
PECI Enabled	Yes
Enhanced Intel Speedstep Technology	Yes
Extended Halt State (C1E) Enabled	Yes
Execute Disable Bit (XD) Enabled	Yes
Intel 64 Technology	Yes
Intel Virtualization Technology	Yes
Package/Socket	FC-LGA6