Intel is certainly making a comeback ion the server market. Should also prove interesting to see where they go with their desktop line as well with regard to power consumption.

An analyst from Thomas Weisel Partners today issued a research brief that included a first evaluation of Intel’s claim to achieve market leadership in terms of power consumption and application performance with its upcoming Xeon 5100 (Woodcrest core) processor.

The test compared current Opteron systems from Sun and Monarch based on an Opteron 285 (2.6 GHz) processor with a 3.0 GHz Woodcrest system. The systems apparently were comparable, however, the Woodcrest system used 4 GB FB DIMMs instead of the 4 GB of DDR memory of the Opterons, which would it at a slight disadvantage from the start in terms of power consumption - DDR2-based FB DIMMs consume more power than their DDR counterparts. The specifications - based on thermal design power (TDP) ratings - of the systems suggested that Woodcrest will ask for more and was put at a 261.6 watt to 241.2 watt disadvantage. Interestingly, the system used substantially less power in the tests that Eric Gomberg from Thomas Weisel Partners conducted…. source: TG Daily