Intel has pushed its Westmere architecture to 3.46 GHz through the flagship Intel Core i7-990X. This is just peanuts compared to the company’s highest clocked processor ever, Intel Xeon X5698. Intel’s new server chip operates at 4.4 GHz from factory.
Intel Xeon X5698 is based on Intel’s hexa-core Westmere architecture, but to keep the power consumption down Intel has deactivated four of the six cores. The circuits still has 12MB L3 cache, HyperThreading and Turbo Boost, but the exact frequencies that the processor reaches with Turbo Boost, or the TDP Intel has set for its record speed processor is unclear.
Intel Xeon X5698 is namely sold behind closed doors to OEMs. The processor is just one of several super-clocked Xeon processors that was tested last year when Intel had six models clocked at 4GHz or more. The top model was made with a clock frequency of 4.66 GHz, but only Xeon X5698 made it to mass production.
The processor has a triple-channel DDR3-1066 memory controller that belongs in a LGA1366 motherboard.
Westmere-based Xeon 5600 family launched last year
Source: CPU-world
