Intel to ship LV Woodcrest server chips in Q3

CHIPZILLA HAS told its partners that it will introduce a "Woodcrest" LV server chip to the market into the third quarter - ahead of its original plans. It will ship its other Woodcrest server chips during Q3 too, although it warns of "limited availability" in the early days.

The 40W 2.33GHz 1333FSB processor complements other chips it wants to position against AMD Opteron chips and partly displaces "Dempsey" stock keeping units (SKUs) it had intended to launch. Dempsey ranges from 130W to 95W, but Woodcrest, apart from the LV will hit 80W.

The Woodcrest 80W series includes the 5160, which is a 3GHz, 4MB cache, 1333MHz system bus processor; the 5150, which clocks at 2.66GHz; the LV 5148 at 2.33GHz; the 5140 at 2.33GHz; the 5130 at 2GHz; the 5120 at 1.86GHz and the 5110 at 1.60GHz. Woodcrest uses the LGA771 socket.

Dempsey chips left in the picture include the 5080, a 3.73GHz, 1066MHz bus chip; the 5063 at 3.20GHz and 95W; the 5060 at 3.20GHz; and the 5050, a 3GHz 667MHz server chip at 95W.

Intel will also use its Kentsfield desktop chip as a uniprocessor chip for entry level servers. Intel has piced up the Woodcrests for the third quarter launch, with the 5148 costing $520, the 5160 $850, the 5150 $700, the 5140 $450, the 5130 $320, the 5120 $255 and the 5110 $210.

As for the Intel Clovertown quad core chip, Intel appears to be unsure as to when and how it will launch. It may be waiting to see what arch rival AMD is up to during the course of the year. µ