Utilizing Intel’s (News - Alert) latest multi-core Xeon E7 server processors, Cisco has announced new rack mount servers for its Unified Computing System (UCS) portfolio. According to a report on Data Center Knowledge site, the UCS C260 M2 can be configured with up to two Intel E7-2800 10-core network processors, offers up to 1Terabyte (TB) of memory, and can expand to 9.6 TB of local storage or 16 SSD’s alternatively. To double the memory capacity of comparable 2-socket traditional servers, the C260 M2 uses Cisco’s (News - Alert) Extended Memory technology.

In addition, incorporating the next generation Intel Xeon processor E7, the networking giant also introduced new versions of the UCS servers B230 M2, B440 M2, and C460 M2 that deliver improved virtualization performance and reduced latency. According to Cisco, its expanded UCS portfolio now offers nine form factors, including blade servers and rack-mount servers.

Just released Intel E7 performance benchmark results indicate that Cisco has achieved nine new world records using VMware,VMMark, TPPC (Transaction Processing Performance Council) and SPEC (Standards Performance Evaluation Corporation) benchmarks.

On top of this world record list is UCS C460 M2 with VMware ESX 4.1 software, establishing a world record of 16.68 for data center virtualized server management on the VMmark 2.0 benchmark. In addition, wrote Data Center Knowledge reporter John Rath, eight SPEC benchmarks were also awarded to Cisco for high-performance computing, technical computing, general purpose computing and server-side Java Middle-ware.

Aside from Cisco’s nine world records, Hewlett-Packard achieved five, SGI received four and one each for IBM, Dell (News - Alert), Oracle and Fujitsu.

Last month, Oracle reported that Oracle WebLogic Server 11g, a component of Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g, together with Oracle Database 11g Release 2 and Oracle Linux running on Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) B440 M1 blade servers achieved a world record result with SPECjEnterprise2010 industry standard benchmark. According to Oracle, the WebLogic Server 11g together with Oracle Database 11g Release 2 outperformed the best IBM (News - Alert) WebSphere result with IBM DB2 9.7 on this benchmark, using the same number of cores.