Critical.
Authoritative.
Strategic.
Subscribe to CIO Magazine »

Intel recasts Pentium chip for servers

After years, Intel pitches a new Pentium chip for servers

Intel is giving new life to its Pentium processor for servers, and has started shipping the new Pentium 350 chip for low-end servers.

The dual-core processor operates at a clock speed of 1.2GHz and has 3MB of cache. Like many server chips, the Pentium 350 lacks features such as integrated graphics, which are on most of Intel's laptop and desktop processors.

The iconic Pentium line of processors has been around for more than a decade, but now is mostly targeted at budget laptops and desktops. Pentium was Intel's flagship PC processor line, a mantle now held by the Core chips. The company once offered Pentium III and Pentium II Xeon processors for servers.

An Intel spokesman said the chip is targeted at microservers, which are low-power, compact servers for Web serving and content delivery services. Intel already offers Xeon E3 chips and is soon expected to launch new chips based on Atom for microservers.

The new processor is an acknowledgement of the Pentium brand's staying power, said Dean McCarron, principal analyst at Mercury Research. Besides microservers, the Pentium 350 could also be used in inexpensive, task-specific servers for storage, printing or document sharing, according to McCarron.

"What we're seeing is a repurposed part," McCarron said. The Pentium 350 is a cheaper alternative to Intel's PC chips, which could also be used in servers but are more expensive with additional features such as integrated graphics.

The new processor draws 15 watts of power and there's a remote chance it could be used in blades, McCarron said. The processor is, however, not a replacement to Intel's current low-power Atom processors. These are typically for netbooks and tablets, but are also being used in high-density servers such as SeaMicro's SM10000-64HD to process cloud transactions.

Targeting the new Pentium chip at servers could also be a tacit acknowledgement that Intel wants Pentium to replace the Celeron brand, which is the lowest rung of Intel's processors. Celeron processors are used in low-cost desktops and laptops, and in a few cases, low-end servers.

Intel declined to provide pricing for the Pentium 350.

Join the CIO Australia group on LinkedIn. The group is open to CIOs, IT Directors, COOs, CTOs and senior IT managers.

More about: Intel, Mercury Interactive, Mercury Research
References show all

Comments

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
Users posting comments agree to the CIO comments policy.
Login or register to link comments to your user profile, or you may also post a comment without being logged in.
Related Coverage
Related Whitepapers
Latest Stories
Community Comments
Tags: Components, hardware systems, Intel, processors, servers
Latest Blog Posts
Whitepapers
  • Synergy gains sustainable competitive edge with HP printers, services and solutions
    Western Australian electricity retailer Synergy signed a four-year HP Smart Print Services agreement to establish an efficient and sustainable imaging and printing network which reduces waste and the organisation’s environmental footprint, without compromising on quality, reliability or security. Read more.
    Learn more »
  • Six tips for choosing a unified threat management (UTM) solution
    As network security grows more complex, businesses are demanding the simplicity of unified threat management (UTM). Businesses like yours are replacing multiple, outdated and costly appliances from different vendors with a single, reliable UTM solution. The best solutions offer a more powerful way to manage network security today and in the future. UTM also promises to slash your network security management efforts and hardware costs. This whitepaper offers you detailed advice on how to choose the comprehensive unified threat management (UTM) that best suits your business.
    Learn more »
  • IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Business Process Platforms 2011 Vendor Analysis
    Enterprises adopting business process management (BPM) software have wide-ranging needs, from highly dynamic task management to complex, high-volume processing with a focus on straight-through automation and the ability to rapidly detect exceptions. This IDC MarketScape focuses on what we call business process (BP) platforms, which are optimized to support midrange to more complex use cases. Read on.
    Learn more »
All whitepapers
rhs_login_lockGet exclusive access to Invitation only events CIO, reports & analysis.