Over the past few days, Intel has been showing its new Xeon (Westmere) processor, which the company says has 40 percent better performance and 30 percent better energy efficiency. The processor features a chip that supports six cores each. Meant for use in servers, the Xeon is also the first processor to use Intel’s 32 nanometer manufacturing process, which results in processors with features as little as 32 nanometers wide. All of which means the Xeon – built on Intel’s familiar x86 architecture – can get much more done with less power, and is likely to find its way into new hardware. Already, IBM has announced a new line of servers that are faster and cooler running, all running on the Xeon.

Given Intel’s history in Israel, you always have to suspect that much of the work done on any new piece of hardware the company comes out with was largely developed in Israel. Alas, that is not the case for the Xeon (a derivative of the Nehalem processor). So I have been told by “informed sources” in Intel. Note, however, that the Next Big Thing from Intel – processors that use the Sandy Bridge (aka Gesher) architecture, with many improvements to the Nehalem series of processors. Sandy Bridge processor technology was largely developed in Israel – the project will be remembered for having its name changed from Gesher, the Hebrew word for “bridge,” after a political party (now defunct) emerged in Israel with the same name. Sandy Bridge-based processors will only be released in 2011, after the “life cycle” of the Westmere/Nehalem line peters out.

Although Israel can’t take direct credit for the speed and efficiency of the Xeon, it can take credit for an important security feature built into the processor: Included in all new Intel processors is the Intel Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) Instructions Set. Tests showed that encryption/decryption of files was 400% faster with AES, and whole disks can be encrypted with barely any impact on performance (anyone who has ever tried to encrypt even a single file with a “regular” processor will understand the benefit).

The AES instruction set, from what I can tell, was largely developed in Intel’s Haifa research facility; the white paper cited above was authored by Shay Gueron, a researcher for Intel and a Professor of Applied Mathematics at Haifa University. He, along with a colleague from Intel in the U.S., is the patent holder for “A method for speeding up the computations for characteristics 2 elliptic curve cryptographic systems,” which looks pretty cryptographical, and is clearly part of the AES.

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• Intel pushes workhorse Xeons to six cores (go.theregister.com)
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If a criteria of Apple fanboydom is how much money one has given to Apple, I definitely have done my share to support the company. Here are my Apple credentials: I own an iMac, two Mac Minis, two Macbooks, two iPod Touches, and varied and sundry iPods.

With that said, here are my first impressions of the iPad.

1. It’s too big. Yes, I know it’s not a Kindle, but still.

2. The screen looks like it would be easy to scratch.

3 .64 GB memory is nice, but it would need an expansion slot to really be useful. Yes, I know it’s not supposed to be a laptop, but still. Steve says it’s “way better than a laptop,” but still – what would really be nice is if they would put that touch-screen technology into a Macbook-type device.

4. It appears that Apple is positioning the iPad for use as a video entertainment device. When would you use it? Not at home, where you would probably want a big screen. On the road? But wouldn’t it be better to take a laptop or netbook, so you could get other stuff done besides watching video?

5. That said, it will probably be a big seller. Nothing Apple has ever made has been a bomb (except maybe the Newton, depending on whom you ask.)

The above is not to exclude the possibility that I will buy one myself.

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• “the Apple tablet just looked like a bigger iPhone, with a 10.1-inch multi-touch screen, and awesome…” (hitenshah.name)