Intel Launches Quad-Core Chips

Now that was fast. Hardly a few months earlier Intel had launched the Core2Duo and now we have the Quad-Core Chips reports PC World.

The Xeon 5300 and Core 2 Extreme QX6700 chips will deliver speedy performance for the science, entertainment, and business sectors, Intel President Paul Otellini said today in a statement. The Xeon 5300 runs 50 percent faster while drawing the same amount of watts as Intel’s own “Woodcrest” Xeon 5100 chip, and the QX6700 is 80 percent faster than its predecessor, the X6800, Intel said.

For the first time such high level of multi-core chips will be available for the desktop segment. While common in the server segment, desktop computers have only seen a maximum of dual core chips, until now.

I would love to get my hands on a system running a dual core chip. I will have to wait a while for the launch here and also for these become affordable.

There are four versions of the quad-core Xeon 5300 chip, viz. 1.60-GHz, 80-watt E5310 for $455; the 1.86-GHz, 80-watt E5320 sells for $690; the 2.33-GHz, 80-watt E5345 sells for $851; and the 2.66-GHz, 120-watt X5355 sells for $1172.

The quad-core gaming chip, the Core 2 Extreme QX6700, running at 2.66-MHz and drawing 130 watts is for $999.
(Note: All prices are per chip in lots of 1000 units.)