Intel® Xeon® Processor E3 Family and the Intel® Server Board S1200BT

The ever increasing flow of CPU's from Intel most certainly keeps us on our toes with the new mainboards that support the CPU's.    Servers are not often top of our list but we took a swift look into the new Sandybridge Series Xeon's as most certainly the new multimedia variant has held our attention in their storming venture out into the wild.    Many have hailed the new line of CPU's as a great leap forward allowing many to gain what they could only dream upon.    Could the same be said for the new line of Xeon CPU's and Server Mainboards.    With our interest readily held from our last outing we decided just to see how good these new chips would perform within the server workplace.    Pricing on the CPU's and Mainboards have once more meant that a SoHo office and small business and readily afford a complete solution from an S.I. or VAR without over spending on the IT budget for the year.   More so for the new business making its way into the world they can obtain a whole unit without breaking the bank.    Intel® Xeon® processor E3 family-based servers give you smarter control of the things that matter to your business—increased sales, improved margins, and reduced risk. As your business becomes more sophisticated, so do your technology needs—real servers give you benefits that a desktop PC used as a server cannot.

Servers featuring Intel® Xeon® processors have intelligent performance that adapts to your needs, giving you the reliability you need today with plenty of room to grow for tomorrow. With built-in 24/7 dependability and advanced security features, Intel®-based servers help you avoid costly business interruptions and potentially catastrophic security breaches. Spend your time focused on your business—respond more quickly to customers, opportunities, and trends—with Intel®-based servers, a smart investment in your business future.

FEATURES AND BENEFITS

·         Intel® Turbo Boost Technology 2.0 will automatically adjust processor performance based on your current workload.

·         Intel® Hyper-Threading Technology (Intel® HT Technology) for more efficient use of processor resources and improved application performance.

·         Intel® AES New Instructions (Intel® AES-NI) accelerate data encryption and decryption

Intel® Hyper-Threading Technology (Intel® HT Technology) uses processor resources more efficiently, enabling multiple threads to run on each core.    Intel® HT Technology increases processor throughput, improving overall performance on threaded software.   Intel HT Technology is available on Previous Generation Intel® Core™ processors, 2nd generation Intel® Core™ processor family, and Intel® Xeon® processor family.   An Intel® processor and chipset combined with an OS and BIOS supporting Intel HT Technology allows you to:

·         Run demanding applications simultaneously while maintaining system responsiveness

·         Keep systems more secure, efficient, and manageable while minimizing impact on productivity

·         Provide headroom for future business growth and new solution capabilities

Enabling better graphics.   With Intel HT Technology multimedia enthusiasts can create, edit, and encode graphically intensive files while running background applications such as virus protection software without compromising system performance.

Improving business efficiency.   Processors with both Intel HT Technology and Intel® Turbo Boost Technology – or Intel® Turbo Boost Technology 2.0 (available in 2nd generation Intel Core processor family) deliver better performance and can complete tasks quicker. The combination of both technologies enables simultaneous processing of multiple threads, dynamically adapts to the workload and automatically disables inactive cores; this increases processor frequency on the busy cores giving an even greater performance boost for threaded applications.  With Intel HT Technology, businesses can:

·         Improve business productivity by doing more simultaneously without slowing down

·         Provide faster response times for Internet and e-commerce applications, enhancing customer experiences

·         Increase the number of transactions that can be processed simultaneously

·         Utilise existing 32-bit applications technologies while maintaining 64-bit future readiness

Intel® AES New Instructions (Intel® AES-NI).   The Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) algorithm is now widely used across the software ecosystem to protect network traffic, personal data, and corporate IT infrastructures.   Data protection or encrypting data—using mathematical algorithms to make data unreadable by unauthorized entities but reproducible by authorized entities—is frequently specified or recommended as a way to ensure that data can be best protected.   Intel® AES-NI is a new instruction set for accelerating the encryption of data in the Intel® Xeon® processor 5600 series and the   Intel® Core™ i5 processor 600 series.   It is composed of seven new instructions that accelerate encryption and decryption, improve key generation and matrix manipulation, and aid in carry-less multiplication.   Intel AES-NI also helps alleviate the performance challenges inherent in cryptographic processing.   Encryption is a well-established method for data protection. It is most commonly used to secure transactions across networks, such as the Internet, where personal or financial information needs to be kept private. It is also often used in combination with authentication schemes to prevent undesired disclosure when data is being stored for later use—such as on an encrypted drive or as an encrypted file stored in a cloud-based service.

Page 1 - E1280 Introduction
Page 2 - Intel® Server Board S1200BT
Page 3 - System Set-Up and Software Used
Page 4 - SiSoftware Sandra 2011 Release Version SP3 Part 1
Page 5 - SiSoftware Sandra 2011 Release Version SP3 Part 2
Page 6 - Boot Drive Tests (Spindle Disc)
Page 7 - Solid State Drive Tests
Page 8 - File System Transfer Test and IOMeter Tests
Page 9 - Conclusions and Awards