Upgrade easily with backward compatibility

Support multiple generations of quad-core and dual-core processors within a single, stable server platform. Drop replacement processors into existing servers without additional hardware changes. Quad-Core Intel® Xeon® processors are backward compatible with Dual-Core Intel® Xeon® processors.

This stable technology platform means minimal qualification efforts. That helps IT adopt this powerful technology rapidly, with minimal complexity and cost.

Quad-core processors are based on the same microarchitecture as dual-core processors.

Both Quad-Core and Dual-Core Intel® Xeon® processors are based on the new Intel® Core™ microarchitecture. This high-performance, energy-efficient set of technologies includes optimizations for execution, memory, and I/O subsystems that include the following ingredients:

• Intel® Wide Dynamic Execution enables four instructions per cycle instead of three offered by other x86 processors.
• Intel® Advanced Digital Media Boost yields four double-precision flops/cycle instead of the conventional two, doubling compute throughput.
• Intel® Smart Memory Access prefetching capabilities place data where you need it and when you need it.
• Intel® Intelligent Power Capability delivers ultra-fine-grained power control to shut off non-critical parts of the chip core, even during periods of peak performance.
• Intel® Smart Cache allows access to 2 MB per core, and since it's shared, data that needs to pass between the two cores can be passed in a single copy operation.

Quad-core makes business faster, more efficient, and smarter

Upgrading to Quad-Core Intel Xeon processors is an easy way to get more out of Intel Core microarchitecture:

• Faster: Quad-core processing augments performance features like Intel Wide Dynamic Execution engine and Intel Advanced Digital Media Boost to run workloads faster.
• More efficient: The efficiency of running four execution cores within the same power envelope as dual-core designs complements platform features like Intel Intelligent Power Capability to provide industry-leading energy efficiency.
• Smarter: 8 MB cache in Quad-Core Intel Xeon processors, which is double the size of previous generations.

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Performance tests and ratings are measured using specific computer systems and/or components and reflect the approximate performance of Intel® products as measured by those tests. Any difference in system hardware or software design or configuration may affect actual performance.