Nehalem

Apple's Xserve took the Nehalem plunge Tuesday. Specifically, the 1U server now runs on a Xeon 5500 series processor, which features the Nehalem microarchitecture. HP and Dell feature similar offerings. So I thought I'd compare the latest Xserve with these other two servers to see if Apple's product remains price-competitive to the other servers in its class.

If you weren't expecting Intel to release its latest line of server chips Monday in the U.S., you may be the only one who was surprised.

Intel's Nehalem-based Xeon server chips are a major architectural jump that offers novel ways of improving system performance, analysts said.

Apple jumped ahead of Intel in launching the chip maker's quad-core Xeon chips, announcing two workstations that carry the upcoming processors.

Intel is gearing up to release the first versions of its Nehalem chip family next month, with the scheduled launch of its Core i7 desktop processors. But users will have to wait much longer to get their hands on the mobile version of the new chip.