Xeon Woodcrest Preys On Opteron

Digital Media Boost... Let's Call It SSE4?

The ALU typically breaks instructions into two blocks, which results in two micro ops and thus two execution clock cycles. Intel now extended the execution width of the three ALUs and the load/store units to 128 bits, allowing for eight single precision or four double precision blocks to be processed per cycle. The feature is called Advanced Digital Media Boost, because it also applies to SSE instructions. This is called Single Cycle SSE and, for example, allows for merging four 32 bit element vectors into one 128 bit element.

Intel expects this to make a tremendous difference for all types of media processing applications (encoding, transcoding, compressing, etc.) and it even says the Core offers the highest IA computation density for vector processing.

Processor Models And Pricing

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ModelClock SpeedPriceTDP
Xeon 51101.6 GHz - FSB1066$ 20965 W
Xeon 51201.86 GHz - FSB1066$ 25665 W
Xeon 51302 GHz - FSB1333$ 31665 W
Xeon 51402.33 GHz - FSB1333$ 45565 W
Xeon 51482.33 GHz - FSB1333$ 51940 W (!)
Xeon 51502.66 GHz - FSB1333$ 69065 W
Xeon 51603.0 GHz - FSB1333$ 85180 W

Quad Cores Will Be Here Soon!

Test Setup

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System Hardware
Processor(s)2x Intel Xeon Processor (Woodcrest core)3.0 GHz, FSB1333, 4 MB L2 Cache
PlatformIntel S5000 (LGA 771)Intel Blackford MCH Chipset, BIOS 04/04/2006
RAMMicron MT18HTF12872FDY (DDR2-533 FB)4x 1 GB, CL4-4-4-12 Timings
System Hard DriveHitachi T7K250164 GB, 7,200 rpm, 8 MB Cache, SerialATA/300
Mass Storage Controller(s)Intel ESB-2 I/O bridge
Graphics CardOn-Board GraphicsATI ES1000, 8 MB
System Benchmarks
PerformanceSiSoft Sandra 2007 1098
System Software & Drivers
OSMicrosoft Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition, Service Pack 1
Platform DriverIntel Chipset Installation Utility 7.3.1.1013
Graphics DriverDefault Windows Graphics Driver