Intel Breathes New Life Into Pentium

angry tapir writes "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."

Comments

This actually makes sense

[jonwil]

A chip like this would work good for servers that are limited more by network bandwidth and disk IO than by CPU load.

Re:This actually makes sense

[Ethanol-fueled]

What they would be good for is trying to make money from the inventory of chips that were too defective to be part of a first-pass yield and sold with a more expensive name. I wonder if they were already written off as losses for tax purposes?

*cough*

It's only a matter of time.

[drunkennewfiemidget]

Until Intel brings back the Pentium brand in general.

Unless they're stupid.

I'll never understand why they killed their most visible, most recognised brand.

Re:It's only a matter of time.

[korgitser]

I'll never understand why they killed their most visible, most recognised brand.

For me that hasn't been much of a question. For what I gather, the Intel brand is way stronger than the Pentium brand. You don't buy Pentium or Core, you buy Intel. Their changing the processor name only signifies that they are moving forward (and leading) as usual.

Re:Dual core for servers?

[beelsebob]

What this looks perfect for is a NAS... now if only anyone would release a mITX C202/C204 board with 6 SATA ports on it.

Re:Nothing

[Shinobi]

The difference with the Pentium 350 is that it is HT and supports VT-x and ECC. And has a TDP of 15W.

I'm trying to dump the Zacate I bought about a month ago onto someone now, and buy a Pentium 350 instead.... The Zacate gets rather hot(noticed 67 degrees Celsius from on-die sensor) when decoding a movie for example, even with a fan. With the Pentium 350 and a GT 520 for example, I could go completely fanless, and not reach those temperatures.

Re:Smart move by intel

[Anonymous Coward]

It's pretty obvious that the low TDP means it's meant for something fanless/low-noise like MacMini servers. Though the MacMini already runs a laptop i5 chip for the same reason.

I hope, but have little faith in Intel when it comes to putting out cooler chips with lower TDP. When they have 100W+ TDP, you can only stuff 4 of them in a 15A rack. When they're 15W, that comes up to 24 ,machines or even blade systems.

But I think it might actually be an attempt to beat Calxeda before it sells any servers. http://www.calxeda.com/products/energycore/ecx1000 1.5Watts per chip (5Watts at maximum power.) The point to notice is the Pentium VTd feature is missing, which means it's not meant for VM's

Re:Dual core for servers?

[hairyfeet]

"Intel Desktops don't have ECC" FTFY

AMD desktops all support ECC and have for ages. When you figure in the cost of the board and Intel's price for the chip one could easily get get one of the low power Phenom variations and still have money in your pocket. One of the places i like to get chips from (great bunch to shop with BTW) has the AMD Phenom X4 9150e which is a 65w quad at 1.8GHz for $55. Slap it in a nice cheap business class board, I prefer the ECS business class myself, and you have a nice cheap server that will be quiet as a churchmouse while being cheaper and more powerful than the Intel Pentium dual.