Intel preps 16 threads with next-gen Nehalem-EX Xeon monster

Intel’s next big server chip, Nehalem-EX, codename “Beckton”, will include 2.3 billion transistors, eight cores, 16 threads per socket, and will be available possibly in late 2009, or more likely early 2010, according to recent revelations by Intel. The chip is designed for systems in excess of two sockets, and is capable of executing 16 simultaneous threads each.

While Intel has not yet provided full details about the chip, in April they demonstrated the 300mm wafer (see pic), which showed the Beckton cores all nicely laid out. At that time, Shannon Pouline, Xeon Platform Director of Intel’s Server Products Group, said “What you’ll get at the beginning of next year — late this year or the beginning of next year — will be the push into the four-socket, eight-socket, and above space.”

In addition, they have just announced that on May 26 (a week from today), Boyd Davis, Intel’s GM of Server Platforms Marketing Group, will host the “roll-out event” to “discuss how this new server product raises the standard in cost-effective RISC replacement solutions”.