Intel rolls out its Xeon E5 server processors, and gears up to handle 15bn connected devices by 2015

“There’s an explosion of data and an explosion of devices connecting to the Internet. Our view is that by 2015, there will be something like 15bn connected devices, with 3.1bn people connected to the Internet.”

-Graham Palmer, Intel’s Managing Director for the UK and Ireland-

At an event held today near Westminster in London, Intel officially unveiled its new server technology, designed to handle the 15bn (give or take…) connected devices planet Earth will be expected to manage within three years. So what does this mean, exactly, from a server standpoint?

“For example, from 600 smartphones or 120 tablets, that actually requires another server to be deployed,” adds Palmer. “There’s a direct correlation between this explosion of devices and the number of servers being deployed in the data centers to support them.”

Indeed, by 2015 annual global data center IP traffic will reach 4.8 zettabytes. Between 2010 and 2015, data center IP traffic will have increased fourfold globally, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 33%.

At these kinds of data levels, each connected user will generate in the region of 4GB of data traffic each day. To manage this growth, it’s estimated that cloud servers will need to triple in number by 2015.

Intel hopes that its Xeon E5-2600 processors will be at the heart of servers and workstations and power the next generation of storage and communication systems from vendors around the world.

Indeed, at the event today in London, Matt Wood, Amazon Web Services’ so-called ‘Technology Evangelist, announced that its Cluster Compute Eight Extra Large (CC2) supercomputer, unveiled last November, was already tapping Intel’s new server processors. “I’m very pleased that today we’re announcing that CC2 is running the Xeon E5 platform, it’s in production and available today,” he said

Intel says that the new server processors are expected to deliver up to 80% improved performance compared to the prior generation – the Xeon 5600 series.

“The growth in cloud computing and connected devices is transforming the way businesses benefit from IT products and services,” says Diane Bryant, Intel vice president and general manager of the Datacenter and Connected Systems Group. “For businesses to capitalize on these innovations, the industry must address unprecedented demand for efficient, secure and high-performing datacenter infrastructure. The Intel Xeon processor E5-2600 product family is designed to address these challenges by offering unparalleled, balanced performance across compute, storage and network, while reducing operating costs.”

Supporting up to eight cores per processor, and up to 768GB of system memory, the E5-2600 “product family” (yes, yes) also supports Advanced Vector Extension, which Intel says will almost double the performance of compute-intensive applications such as financial analysis, media content creation and high performance computing.

The Xeon processor E5-2600 series will be offered with 17 different parts, ranging in price from $198 to $2,050 in quantities of 1,000. Three single-socket Intel Xeon processor E5-1600 parts will be offered for workstations which range in price from $284 to $1,080.

Starting from today, system manufacturers around the world are expected to announce hundreds of platforms based on the Intel Xeon processor E5 series, including Acer, Asus, Cisco, Dell, Fujitsu, HP, Hitachi, Huawei, IBM, and Oracle.