Intel has released a number of rather impressive Xeons, including quad-cores clocked at 3.4GHz and the first six-core parts clocked at 2.66GHz.

Starting off with the only dual-core of the bunch, the X5270 is clocked at 3.5GHz, FSB 1333MHz, has a TDP of 80W and it's priced at $1,172.

Moving on to quads, the X5470 and X5492 are clocked at 3.33GHz and 3.4GHz, respectively. The X5470 has a 1333MHz FSB and 120W TDP, while the X5492 has a 1600MHz FSB and 150W TDP. They are priced at $1,386 and $1,493. The L5430 runs at 2.66GHz, FSB 1333 and has a 50W TDP. This part should sell at $562.

The six-core Dunnington comes in three flavors. The L7455 packs 6 cores clocked at 2.13GHz, 3x3MB cache and 12MB of shared L3 cache. Apparently, it has a TDP of just 50W, which sounds impressive. The E7450 is clocked at 2.4GHz, has 12MB of L3 cache and a TDP of 90W. The flagship X7460 runs at 2.66GHz, has 16MB of L3 cache and a TDP of 130W. Unfortunately, we still don't have any prices for these parts.

Although these new CPUs won't make much difference for mainstream desktop users, it's nice to see Intel pushing dual-core clocks to 3.5GHz, almost catching up with Prescott's 3.8GHz, while keeping the TDP at just 80W. A quad-core at 3.4GHz is a nice treat, too, although it has a 150W TDP.

The six cores boast a surprisingly low TDP, kudos to Intel's engineers. These babies are the without a doubt the fastest single-socket CPUs on the market, making them an ideal choice for scientific use, off line rendering and a variety of other uses. They won't come cheap, but AMD has nothing to counter them at the moment. AMD, who changed its server roadmap completely,  is also focusing on six-cores instead, but it's still a long way off from bringing them to the market.