Intel Releases Broadwell CPUs for Servers

Intel officially launched the E5-2600 v4 CPU (code name “Broadwell”) today for servers which adds extra cores and faster memory.  Today’s release by Intel is not a major architectural CPU change, but instead an enhancement to their existing CPU offering.  This means you probably won’t see any “new” servers released, but you will have new CPUs to choose from in the future.  Before I go into the details of the E5-2600 v4, I want to take a second and help you understand Intel’s CPU strategy.  

Summary
Over the past few generations of Intel CPUs, Intel has used a “tick-tock” method of releasing CPUs.  In other words, Intel alternated their release cycle where one generation would be a new architecture, while the following would be a smaller version, offering more cores.  The current server CPU generation, listed below under the codename “Haswell” shows that the major “tock” cycle was a new design that drove new server models, where the Intel E5-2600 v4, released today, is considered a “tick” cycle and simply reduces the CPU to 14nm while adding enhancements.  In summary, today’s announcement won’t require you to change to a new server.  For more details on the E5-2600 v4, check out the next section.

Intel Tick-Tock Cycle

 

E5-2600 v4 Benefits
So, why should you consider using the Intel Xeon E5-2600 v4?  Well, to start with, the existing E5-2600 v3 CPUs you’ve been buying will be discontinued over the next 6 months.  Aside from that, here are the biggest benefits you’ll see with the Broadwell CPU:

  • More cores – as you’ll see in the chart below, the top CPUs will now go up to 22 cores
  • More cache – top CPUs will go up to 55 MB LLC (last-level cache)
  • Faster memory – with this newest CPU update, certain CPUs will allow the memory DIMMs to achieve 2400 MHz
  • Improvements in Resource Orchestration and Security – for full details on these features, please check out the Intel press release

E5-2600 CPU Offerings

If you are wondering what your options are for the new E5-2600 v4 CPUs, I’ve published a chart that should help below.  Please keep in mind that your server vendor may not carry all of the CPUs listed below.

E5-2600 v4 CPUs

I’d love to know what you think about the newest Intel CPUs.  If you have any comments or questions, please post them in the comments below.

 

Kevin Houston - Founder, BladesMadeSimple.comKevin Houston is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of BladesMadeSimple.com.  He has over 18 years of experience in the x86 server marketplace.  Since 1997 Kevin has worked at several resellers in the Atlanta area, and has a vast array of competitive x86 server knowledge and certifications as well as an in-depth understanding of VMware and Citrix virtualization.  Kevin has worked at Dell as a Server Sales Engineer covering the Global Enterprise market since August 2011.

 

Disclaimer: The views presented in this blog are personal views and may or may not reflect any of the contributors’ employer’s positions. Furthermore, the content is not reviewed, approved or published by any employer.

 

 

 

 

2 thoughts on “Intel Releases Broadwell CPUs for Servers

  1. Pingback: Dell Releases HTML5 and Redfish Support for iDRAC » Blades Made Simple

  2. Allen Cui

    Sadly speaking, don’t forget the license mode of Windows Server will be changed into core-counting instead of socket-counting later this year. lol

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