Intel’s Nehalem-EX Targets Mainframe, RISC Systems

“Intel is targeting the mainframe and RISC systems market with
its new Xeon 6500/7500 lines of server processors that offer many
features normally reserved for those high end systems.

“The two processor lines were developed under the Nehalem-EX
codename . The 6500 is meant for economical two-socket designs
while the 7500 is for two- to eight-socket servers. They can
address much more memory than previous Xeons and feature
reliability, availability and serviceability (RAS) designed to
support 24/7/365 operation. These processors are specifically aimed
at high-performance computing (HPC) and mission-critical
computing.

“The x86 architecture has made tremendous inroads to the
datacenter and is the overwhelming server of choice for many tasks.
But in the mission-critical space, for servers that must always run
and never go down, x86 has played second fiddle to mainframes and
RISC processors, most notably the Sun UltraSparc and Intel’s own
Itanium processors.”

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