Intel is topping off its single-core Xeon offerings with a new 64-bit processor platform code-named Truland, as the company transitions towards dual-core chips. Truland is billed as Centrino for servers, and is comprised of Intel's E8500 chipset with PCI Express support, DDR2-400 memory, and 64-bit Xeon MP processors.

Truland is targeted at mid-range enterprises for servers with four or more processors. Intel touts performance increases of 70 percent over previous Xeon chips, which is aided by support for 8MB of Level 3 cache. Truland's E8500 chipset features a faster 667 MHz bus and will eventually support dual-core Xeon's, known as "Paxville."

"This year, Intel celebrates 10 years in the multiprocessor server market segment that began with the Intel Pentium processor and today adds a sixth generation of the Intel Xeon processor MP," said Pat Gelsinger, senior vice president and general manager of Intel's Digital Enterprise Group.

The new 64-bit Xeons will be supported by Microsoft's forthcoming x64 editions of Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP, which are expected to be released to manufacturing shortly.

"With Windows Server 2003 x64 Editions, Microsoft is delivering a single platform that will provide high-performance benefits for existing 32-bit applications, plus breakthrough performance and scalability for 64-bit applications," said Andy Lees, Microsoft corporate vice president of Server and Tools Marketing and Solutions.

But the new 64-bit Xeons won't come cheap. Intel's top-of-the-line chip that runs at 3.33 GHz with 8MB of L3 cache is priced at $3692 USD in 1,000 unit quantities. Lowering the speed to 3 GHz drops the price to $1980 USD. Intel's "Value Processors" with 1MB of L2 cache start at $722 USD in 1,000 unit quantities.