Intel chose the SC11 conference for an unusual preview of its next-generation mid-range workstation and server chip, the Xeon E5. The pre-release chip is now running ten of the supercomputers in the Top500 list and is estimated to be about 2.1 times more pure performance, and 70 percent in high demand workloads, than the Xeon 5600 it replaces. It will also be the first Xeon to support PCI Express 3.0, which doubles the bandwidth and is useful for very high bandwidth connections to the Internet, cluster computers, and high-demand local peripherals like video cards.
