Intel Xeon E5-2400 CPU series details

Two days ago we published an article, detailing features of upcoming Xeon E5-1600 and E5-2600 microprocessors with Sandy Bridge-EP core. These processors will be available in the 4th quarter 2011, and they will utilize socket 2011. In the first quarter 2012 Intel will introduce a variation of the Sandy Bridge core, codenamed Sandy Bridge-EN, that will use different socket B2 (socket 1356). These chips will be branded as Xeon E5-2400, and they will be coupled with C600-series chipset.

Major differences of the E5-2400 series from the 2600 processors lie in the area of on-chip components, and the CPU part on both series will be very similar. The 2400 models are going to have up to 8 HyperThreaded cores, and will be able to run up to 16 threads at once. The processors will feature up to 20 MB L3 cache, and will be produced with several different TDP levels from 40W to 95W. Like the Sandy Bridge EP chips, the E5-2400 CPUs will support all advanced microarchitecture features, including Advanced Vector Extensions and AES instructions, Trusted Execution and VT-x/d/c technologies. Integrated memory controller on EN microprocessors will have only three channels, and the total number of supported DIMMs will be reduced to 2 per each channel. As a result, the maximum amount of memory, supported by Intel E5-2400s, will be 48 GB for one CPU, or 96 GB for dual-processor systems. The EN parts will also have smaller number of PCIe controllers, which will result in smaller number of PCIe lanes - 24, as opposed to 40 on EP processors. The E5-2400s will have only one QPI link. The slide below may serve as a good summary of differences between the E5-2400 and E5-2600 families:

[The slide was removed at Intel's request]

Speaking about Xeon E5 processors, there will be another variation of SNB core with codename "Sandy Bridge EP 4S". Microprocessors, based on this core, will be launched as a "Romley-EP 4S" platform in the 1st quarter 2012 along with C600-series chipset. The platform will scale up to 4 sockets, and the CPUs will be branded as Xeon E5-4600 series. At this time, we don't have detailed information on this family.