Today, Intel Incorporated has launched the Xeon L5430, the X5470 and the X5492-three quad-core Xeon processors-and also the X5270, a dual-core chip processor, which come to complete the company’s „Core” line. The latter has the highest clock frequency of all the „Core” chips, peaking at 3.5 gigahertz, while the other three run on frequencies ranging from 2.66 gigahertz to 3.4 Ghz. These new chips are the first of the family to use halogen-free packaging materials, which renders them environmentally-friendly since halogens are not only difficult to recycle but can also release toxins if incinerated.

All four Xeon processors have been developed using Intel's 45-nanometer chip manufacturing and are just a preview of what the company has in store. Later this month, its "Dunnington" processor is slated for release. Dunnington is Intel’s first multi-core CPU die, which will be fitted with three unified 3 MB L2 caches, 96 KB L1 cache and 16 MB of L3 cache and is expected to have a maximum power consumption below 130 W.

Intel’s Xeon brand consists of many families of multiprocessing CPU’s, the latest four being included in the „Harpertown” series, which was released on November 11, 2007. The prices of the chips range from $562 (for a quad-core Xeon L5430) to $1,493 ( for a quad-core Xeon X5492). The company announced that, due to a manufacturing recipe that can make chips switch to faster speeds without this having an impact on the power consumption level, it has managed to offer a Xeon chip-the L5430-that uses only 50 Watts.