Intel quad-core Xeon X5365 V8 performance benchmarked

Back in the day, a car with a V-8 engine got everyone’s attention; now, you need at least 12, or maybe 16 cylinders to get us interested. Similarly, only a year or two ago, having more than one CPU in a computer was out of the reach of an ordinary consumer. Advances in both technical manufacturing and design have played a part in allowing for this power growth, but the software engineers are also to thank for writing code that makes the best use of this power. Within the past 18 months, the growth in computing power has shattered Gordon Moore’s famous law. This has come through more efficient computing, not just faster computing.

Will we get to the point where we can have too much power? With cars, I’ll tell you that having nearly 300 horsepower in stop-and-go San Francisco traffic doesn’t help anyone except the gas companies. With airplanes, transportation at over mach 1 could not be sustained as evidenced by the retirement of the Concord. Well, the timing of the V8 comes on the heels of Microsoft Vista.