Intel has pumped out a pair of fresh server chips meant to give AMD fits. Customers will now find the Xeon X5365 and L5335 four-core processors. The higher-end X5365 runs at 3.0GHz while eating up a max of 120W. Meanwhile, energy conscious types will want to check out the L5335 that runs at 2.0GHz while consuming just 50W.

As reported earlier, the L5335 should prove particularly troubling for AMD. The smaller chipmaker is just pushing out a 1.9GHz version of the four-core 'Barcelona' flavor of Opteron to server OEMs now, and that chip consumes 68W. A 2.0GHz standard edition Barcelona tops out at 95W.

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The new four-core chips from Intel also come with faster 1333MHz front side bus speeds, helping Intel deal with a long-standing bottleneck. Intel has been shipping products with a 1066MHz FSB.

Intel is bragging that it got the new Xeons out quicker than expected. Again, that's a jab at AMD, which has Barcelona coming in later and slower than many hoped.

The X5365 will cost $1,172 in volume, while the L5335 costs $380. ®

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