Product Brief

Expert Workbench
Intel® Xeon® processor 5600 Series

Bring Digital Prototyping to the Desktop

with Intel® Xeon® Processor 5600 Series-based Workstations
Move beyond CAD with powerful workstations that let
you create, test and modify products before building Transform the way you work
with an Intel® Expert Workbench
costly physical prototypes.
Near-supercomputing performance
and professional visualization
The latest Intel® Xeon® processor 5600 series-based workstations bring
unprecedented performance and flexibility to the desktop. Not only can • Up to 38 percent better performance than previous-
designers and engineers do complex tasks faster, they can do multiple generation workstations for digital content creation2
tasks at the same time to truly accelerate development. Imagine running
• Massive resources with up to 12 cores, 24 execution threads
Microsoft Windows*-based design tools and complex Linux*-based simu-
and 192 GB1 of memory
lation applications concurrently, securely and at full speed. The ability
to test multiple “what-if” scenarios per day without slowing interactive • Supports the most demanding workflow and graphics
design tasks brings innovation to life faster than ever before. requirements

Extreme Performance that Adapts Run concurrent, multi-OS workloads securely

and at full speed
to Your Workloads
A single workstation with two Intel Xeon processors 5600 series now • Near-native performance with Intel® Virtualization Technology
provides near-supercomputing capacity, with up to 12 computational • Fully accelerated graphics with Intel® Virtualization Technology
cores, 24 threads and memory configurations as large as 192 GB.1 This for Directed I/O
processor family helps you get the most out of these resources by
intelligently allocating processing power where you need it most.

• Intel® Hyper-Threading TechnologyФ doubles the number of • Superior data integrity and enhanced workstation reliability.
execution threads to increase performance for many complex As engineering models continue to get larger, more complex and
workloads (simulation-based design, ray tracing, rendering, etc.). more time-consuming, memory footprints and the probability of
memory errors increase proportionally. Since a single error can crash
• Intel® Turbo Boost Technology§ increases core frequencies beyond
a system or corrupt results, it is essential to mitigate this risk. Intel
rated values to push performance even higher for your most
Xeon processor-based workstations support Error-Correcting Code
demanding workloads.
Memory (ECC Memory), which automatically detects and corrects up
• Intel® Smart Cache dynamically allocates cache resources based to 99.9998 percent of memory errors. With this protection, you can
on the demands of each core so data is managed more efficiently have full confidence in your data, even as you build massive 64-bit
to optimize execution across all 12 cores. models and designs to visualize trends and identify interferences
more effectively.
With this intelligent performance, you can multitask with ease and be
more productive than ever, whether you’re creating innovative product • Stronger security for your systems and data. Intel® Trusted
designs, compelling graphics or blockbuster visual effects. Execution Technology† (Intel® TXT) prevents rootkits and other
malware from being inserted at boot up to protect your work-
Enhanced Reliability, Predictability and Security stations and your valuable intellectual property more effectively
Intel® processor-based workstations are the most widely deployed against today’s increasingly sophisticated attacks.
64-bit workstation platforms in the world. You can count on them to
deliver the stability and scalability you need to move your business
forward. The Intel Xeon processor 5600 series takes reliability and
security to new heights.
 Breakthrough Flexibility with Better IT Support and Lower TCO
High-Performance Virtualization With such power and flexibility on the desktop, even the most demand-
Intel® Virtualization Technology∆ (Intel® VT) gives you complete ing users will no longer need multiple workstations or a separate PC, so
control over your workstation resources by enabling near-native you can consolidate desktop systems to reduce energy and IT support
compute performance and full graphics acceleration in virtual costs per user. You can also standardize on a single operating system,
machines. Add virtualization software and a 64-bit host OS and you while supporting legacy environments and unstable applications
can access all your 64-bit and 32-bit data and applications from a securely in virtual machines. This can greatly simplify migrations
single workstation, run multiple workloads concurrently and switch to Windows* 7.
instantly among environments without rebooting. Do unexpected
business requests sometimes leave you searching for resources?
Deploy new applications instantly in virtual machines or cluster
workstation resources to run large simulations on demand, without
waiting for HPC batch jobs or slowing interactive design tasks.

Intel® Expert Workbench Overview

Features Benefits
Massive Resources for Demanding • Two Intel® Xeon® processors 5600 series; up to 12 processing cores with 24 execution threads, up to 12 MB cache per
and Concurrent Workloads processor, and support for up to 192 GB1 memory.
Intel® Hyper-Threading TechnologyФ •T
 wo execution threads per core for higher throughput and reduced latency.
Intel® Turbo Boost Technology §
• Increases performance when you need it most, by increasing core frequencies beyond rated values for peak workloads.
Intel® Smart Cache Technology •A
 ccelerates data access by dynamically optimizing cache allocations across all 12 cores.
Intel® Virtualization Technology (Intel® VT) ∆
•E
 nables near-native performance for compute-intensive applications in virtual machines.
Intel® Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O •E
 nables full graphics acceleration through direct assignment of graphics cards to virtual machines.
Intel® Trusted Execution Technology (Intel® TXT) †
•E
 nsures host OSs and hypervisors boot into “known good states” to prevent insertion of rootkits and other malware.
Error-Correcting Code (ECC) Memory •P
 rotects data and uptime by self correcting 99.9998% of memory errors.

For more information, visit www.intel.com/go/workstation

Intel processor numbers are not a measure of performance. Processor numbers differentiate features within each processor family, not across different processor families. See www.intel.com/products/processor_number for details.
Ф Hyper-Threading Technology requires a computer system with a processor supporting Hyper-Threading Technology and an HT Technology enabled chipset, BIOS and operating system. Performance will vary depending on the specific
hardware and software you use. See www.intel.com/info/hyperthreading/ for more information including details on which processors support HT Technology.
§ Intel® Turbo Boost Technology requires a platform with a processor with Intel Turbo Boost Technology capability. Intel Turbo Boost Technology performance varies depending on hardware, software and overall system configuration. Check with
your platform manufacturer on whether your system delivers Intel Turbo Boost Technology. For more information, see http://www.intel.com/technology/turboboost.
† No computer system can provide absolute security under all conditions. Intel® Trusted Execution Technology is a security technology under development by Intel and requires for operation a computer system with Intel® Virtualization Technology,
an Intel Trusted Execution Technology-enabled processor, chipset, BIOS, Authenticated Code Modules, and an Intel or other compatible measured virtual machine monitor. In addition, Intel Trusted Execution Technology requires the system to
contain a TPMv1.2 as defined by the Trusted Computing Group and specific software for some uses. See http://www.intel.com/technology/security/ for more information.
∆ Intel® Virtualization Technology requires a computer system with an enabled Intel® processor, BIOS, virtual machine monitor (VMM) and, for some uses, certain platform software enabled for it. Functionality, performance or other benefits will
vary depending on hardware and software configurations and may require a BIOS update. Software applications may not be compatible with all operating systems. Please check with your application vendor.
1
Current design supports up to 192 GB of memory using 16 GB DIMMS and up to 96 GB using 8 GB DIMMS.
2
Benchmark: DCC MegaTasking v 3.0
Baseline Configuration and Score on Benchmark: Intel® W3EA2 SDP (Baseboard Supermicro X8DAi, Intel® 5520 B2 chipset) with two Quad-Core Intel® Xeon® processor W5590 (3.33 GHz, 8 MB L3 Cache, 6.4GT/s QPI,D0 stepping, HT
enabled, Turbo enabled, EIST enabled), BIOS version 10/14/2009, 24 GB (6x4 GB DDR3-1333 ECC RDIMM) Memory, one nVidia Quadro* FX5800, nVidia graphic driver version 191.78 (using 3D APP-Default Global Settings, vertical sync
off), one external 21” LCD Display (1280x1024, 32-bit color quality, 75 HZ), one 74 GB 10000RPM SATA 3.0 Gb/s Hard Disk, Microsoft Windows XP* Professional x64 Edition SP2 OS. Source: Intel internal testing as of January 2010.
New Configuration and Score on Benchmark: Intel® W3EB1 SDP (Baseboard Supermicro X8DAi, Intel® 5520 C2 chipset) with two Six-Core Intel® Xeon® processor X5680 (3.33 GHz, 12 MB L3 Cache, 6.4 GT/s QPI,B0 stepping, 130W TDP, HT
enabled, Turbo enabled, EIST enabled, C1E enabled), BIOS version 1/7/2010, 24 GB (6x4 GB DDR3-1333 ECC RDIMM) Memory, one nVidia Quadro* FX5800, nVidia graphic driver version 191.78 (using 3D APP-Default Global Settings, vertical
sync off), one external 21” LCD Display (1280x1024, 32bit color quality, 75Hz), one 74 GB 10000RPM SATA 3.0 Gb/s Hard Disk, Microsoft Windows XP* Professional x64 Edition SP2 OS. Source: Intel internal testing as of January 2010.

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