Alongside a 6-core launch for consumers, in the enterprise segment Intel will start shipping eight-core Nehalem-EX processors this month already. The pending 8-core Xeons will be able to run in four-socket servers and, by leveraging the two threads of each core, the logical CPU count can reach 64 cores on a single system.

This high scalability is complemented by 256KB L2 dedicated cache memory for each core, a shared L3 cache of 24MB and even Turbo Boost technology, which can disable unused cores in order to safely and effectively boost the heavily used ones. The 8-core also has a memory controller with four DDR3 memory channels and is built on the 45nm HKMG process (it is based on the Nehalem architecture).

The 8-cores will make their official debut later this month. In addition, Intel is preparing to formally add its Westmere-EP processors around the same time. These will be based on the 32nm Westmere process and will likely have six cores (aimed at two-socket servers), a 12MB L3 cache and three DDR3 channels.

Quietly working on a new SSD controller for the past three years, SandForce announced a new family of solid-state disk (SSD) processors, the SF-1000, today.

According to the company based in Saratoga, California, this new technology is supposed to “address the inherent endurance, reliability, and data retention issues associated with NAND flash memory, making it possible to build SSDs that deliver unprecedented performance over the life of the drive with orders-of-magnitude higher reliability than enterprise-class HDDs (Hard Disk Drives).”

“The SF-1000 SSD Processor Family promises to address key NAND flash issues allowing MLC flash technologies to be reliably used in broad based, mission critical storage environments,” said Mike Desens, Vice President for System Design, IBM.

SandForce claims that this new controller can improve MLC sequential read/writes to 250MB/sec., while it’s new firmware DuraWrite, supposedly extends “flash rated endurance by 80x or more when compared to standard controllers.”

Another part of its new technology is called RAISE “(Redundant Array of Independent Silicon Elements), which delivers an orders-of-magnitude improvement in drive reliability versus today’s SSDs and enterprise HDDs. The result is single-drive RAID-like protection and recovery from a potentially catastrophic single flash block or die failure – all while avoiding the inefficiencies of traditional RAID.”

“With RAISE, we can recover, even if a complete die fails, or up to 32Gbits of data can fail and we can recreate it,” Kent Smith, senior director of product marketing at SandForce, said.

“SF-1000 Enterprise and Mobile Computing SSD Processors will be available in prototype quantities later in the second calendar quarter of 2009. SF-1000 Evaluation SSDs and reference designs in standard 2.5” drive form factors will also be available using multiple manufacturers’ NAND flash memory.”