Intel Unveils Eco-Friendly Chips

by Darren

Intel has launched a the first halogen-free Xeon processors, which the company says are a lot more environmentally friendly than past models. The halogen has been replaced in the cpus by a hafnium-based high-k metal gate formula.

The latest processors include three quad-core products: X5492, X5470, and L5430. The fastest of the chips has a clock speed of 3.4 GHz, while the low-voltage version uses 50 watts of power per core. The fourth new processor is the X5270, which runs as low as 80 watts with frequencies as high as 3.5 GHz.

The chips are aimed at manufacturers of workstations, blade servers, and mainstream servers, and are drop-in compatible with existing Intel dual-processor platforms that have been in the market since 2006. “Customers using these new Xeon processors will not only benefit from greater performance and energy efficiency within existing platforms, but they will be the very first to use Intel’s halogen-free technology,” Kirk Skaugen, VP and general manager of Intel’s server platforms group, said in a statement.

Chips in the 5400 series are available for purchase by OEMs right now.