A few hours ago in San Francisco, Intel unveiled the Xeon 7400 family of server processors, code-named Dunnington, including its first six-core design. The range includes three low-voltage versions, whereas the 7300 range had one, and Intel is claiming "the lowest watts-per-core usage of any device in their category", reports EE Times.
And according to the Financial Times, reporting from Mumbai, it's "the first microprocessor for the mass market that [Intel] has developed almost exclusively at its design centre in Bangalore in a milestone for the research and development of computer hardware in India." It says:
"It's not just services and software that India is known for but this shows you also can do this kind of complex research and development and product design here in India," said Praveen Vishakantaiah, president of Intel India.
AMD is trailing Intel at the 45nm level, and its six-core server processor, code-named Istanbul, isn't expected until next year.
Intel has already benefited from developing chips outside the US. Its lab in Israel came up with the Banias processor used in the original Centrino design for laptops. Intel then abandoned the US-designed high-clock-speed Pentium NetBurst architecture and switched to the new Core Duo design, Yonah. A six-core chip isn't exactly a novel idea but success should certainly enhance the Bangalore lab's credibility.
