Intel on Tuesday announced the launch of the world's first ever six-core Intel Xeon Processor 7400 series products designed in India for the first time.

The Intel India team designed Intel's first 6-core x86 microprocessor from Bangalore - the Intel Xeon 7400 series processor -- formerly codenamed Dunnington.

Dunnington is Intel's first six-core CPU with 16 MB of L3 cache memory and 1.9 billion transistors, Intel said in a

statement. The Intel India team planned and executed end-to-end design activities including front-end design, pre-silicon logic validation and the back-end design for Dunnington which completes the transition of the entire Intel Xeon family to Intel's 45nm Hi-K manufacturing process, it said.

The company said: "It is socket compatible with the Intel Xeon 7300, while delivering up to 1.5x performance/watt benefit, making the transition cost effective. The Intel India design team from Bangalore, through solid partnerships with several cross-site teams delivered the product."

The Xeon MP Server is a platform suited for virtualization and the new Xeon 7400 processor offers enhanced performance and support for Intel VT FlexMigration along with server system level scalability, making it the platform of choice for virtualisation.

"Post-silicon validation drives the crucial decision of whether a product is ready for high volume production and market introduction. It also tracks the product performance and power in the user environment to give the final go-ahead for market introduction. Post silicon validation activities like system validation were undertaken at Intel's Bangalore facility", the statement said.

According to Intel, Dunnington was required to meet the company's highest standards of specification in quality including reliability, application compatibility, functionality, manufacturability, physical parameters, performance and platform design compliance.

The team also worked with the ecosystem to develop specialised debug tools for the latest technology validation and met performance benchmark targets and longevity goals to protect end-customers' investment in Intel high end server technology, it said.

Finally, Intel India also provided critical hardware and software applications enabling engineering support to customers in India to ensure their readiness to launch their solutions along with Intel.

"Intel India has been steadily contributing to the development of Intel's products. Other contributions included the Napa, Santa Rosa and Montevina mobile platforms and the Quad-Core Intel Xeon 5300 and Intel Core 2 Extreme quad-core processor families' design and validation," it said.