Intel is now offering ten new processors under the Xeon E-2100 Series brand targeting entry-level workstations. The latest CPUs are an ideal upgrade for companies that haven’t refreshed their workstation hardware in three to five years, implementing the newest processor technologies through Intel’s latest eighth-generation “Coffee Lake” design.
As the chart shows, the current entry-level Xeon E-2100 Series packs up to six cores and 12 threads while only utilizing upto 95 watts of power. All chips labeled with the “G” suffix combine an Intel UHD Graphics 630 integrated GPU component while the non-G chips ship without graphics. All ten support 40 PCI Express 3.0 lanes through the CPU(16) and motherboard chipset (24) combined.
The great news here is that Intel is modernizing the entry-level workstation market with six-core solutions. These chips also convey to the table support for Intel’s Optane memory, Thunderbolt 3 connectivity, USB 3.1 Gen2 connectivity (10Gbps), GB Intel Ethernet, Intel Wireless AC, and upto 64GB of DDR4 ECC system memory clocked at 2,666MHz.
“The organization of two additional cores and higher single-core turbo frequency delivers increases in appearance across workstation benchmarks compared with previous four-core entry workstation processors,” Intel says. “The processor allows Error Correcting Code (ECC) memory, a key feature to maximize data integrity, to h improve system stability, and decrease the possibility of silent data corruption.”
According to the company, the appearance of the latest Xeon E-2100 Series chips is upto 1.36 times quicker than 2017’s Xeon E3-1200 v6 processor family. Related to the 2017 chips, you’ll supposedly see upto 1.45 times faster financial services applications, upto 1.36 times faster compute-intensive applications, and upto 1.45 times more rapid 3D modeling and animation applications.
For example, the Xeon E3-1275v6 processor released in 2017 can decode, stitch, render, and encode 4K video in six minutes and eight seconds. Meantime, the new six-core E-2176G can achieve a similar task in four minutes and 39 seconds, shaving off one minute and 29 seconds. The chips also give more than enough horsepower to build and experience virtual reality applications using the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift.
The latest entry-level processors follow the company’s Xeon W processor family for mainstream workstations. Intel gives eight CPUs in this group, such as the 18-core W-2195 processor with a base speed of 2.3 GHz, a maximum speed of 4.3 GHz, 24.75MB of cache, and a 140-watt power requirement. The extra chips in this family range from 14 cores to a mere four cores.
But if your wallet can help extreme performance, Intel’s Xeon Scalable Processor family is your ticket to the latest workstation. The top of the line chip is Intel’s Platinum 8180 sporting 28cores and 56 threads with a base speed of 2.5G Hz, the best rate of 3.8 GHz, and a 205-watt power requirement. The remaining nine Platinum and Gold processors explore from 24cores to a mere 4 cores.
Intel didn’t tell when you can purchase the latest entry-level Xeon E-2100 Series chips to create your workstation. Preferably, expect to see the CPUs in pre-built workstations from Dell, Lenovo, HP, and other manufacturers.