Intel unveiled the latest family of its Xeon processors based on the Sandy Bridge architecture on Tuesday.

All top server vendors have launched x86 product lines based on the new Xeon E5-2600 processors either before or on the day of the announcement.

The new family of Xeon processor delivers up to 80% better performance than the prior generation, triple the I/O and the best performance per watt the company has ever achieved, according to Intel.

Diane Bryant, VP and general manager of Intel’s Datacenter and Connected Systems group, said the product was addressing the need for high-performing data center infrastructure required today to satisfy demand created by cloud computing and the growing number of connected devices.

“The Intel Xeon processor E5-2600 product family is designed to address these challenges by offering unparalleled, balanced performance across compute, storage and network, while reducing operating costs,” she said.

Among vendors that have built products around the new processors are IBM, HP, Dell, Fujitsu, Oracle and Cisco. HP announced its eighth-generation ProLiant servers in mid-February and Dell unveiled generation-12 PowerEdge machines toward the end of that month.

On Tuesday, at Intel’s press event in San Francisco, IBM, Fujitsu and Cisco also showcased their server product lines running on Xeon E5-2600.

The platform supports up to eight cores per processor and up to 768GM of system memory, Intel said. This is one of the reasons its performance is unprecedented for the company.

Another major reason is its support for Intel’s Advanced Vector Extension, which increases performance on compute-intensive applications.

The new Xeon comes with built-in Turbo Boost Technology 2.0, which enables it to automatically switch to a mode where cores run faster than the base operating frequency if prompted by the operating system.

The processors feature Intel’s Node Manager and a significantly enhanced Data Center Manager, the company’s data center infrastructure management (DCIM) middleware. We covered Xeon E5-2600 DCIM features in depth in an earlier article.