Intel shoots for the cloud with new Xeon chips

Boasts of 80 percent performance increase.

Intel has released its latest Xeon processor product range, aimed squarely at businesses building cloud computing services.

The E5-2600 product family will be included in platforms from around 20 global vendors, including Lenovo, Acer, Cisco, Dell, Fujitsu, Huawei and HP for its new line of Z workstations. 

Intel claims the Xeon E5-2600 range boosts data centre performance by 80 percent compared to the previous 5600 series.

The chip giant’s general manager of data centres and connected systems Diane Bryant said the company had responded to “unprecedented demand” for high-performing and secure data centre infrastructure. 

"The growth in cloud computing and connected devices is transforming the way businesses benefit from IT products and services," she said in a statement.

“The Intel Xeon processor E5-2600 product family is designed to address these challenges by offering unparalleled, balanced performance across compute, storage and network, while reducing operating costs."

The Xeon range is made up of 17 parts which start from $US198 ($A187) to $2050 in quantities of 1000. Three single-socket parts are available for workstations which range from $284 to $1080.

It supports eight cores per processor and 768GB memory, and features built-in technologies to increase infrastructure performance, integrate the I/O controller supporting PCI Express 3.0 directly into the microprocessor, and tools to monitor and control power usage.