White Papers

A key to the success of the Yahoo! search engine is its ability to select the top 20 to 30 most relevant responses to each customer query, out of the millions of responses that a typical Internet query can generate, and then present only the most useful information to the inquirer.  This case study documents how Yahoo! uses Intel® dual-socket, quad-core technology to deliver better, faster searches.

In Intel IT tests, a laptop PC based on Intel® Centrino® 2 with vPro™ technology running a virtualized client environment performed up to 125 percent faster than a three-year-old native-mode system due for refresh. Results suggest that new platforms that include faster processors with Intel® Virtualization Technology (Intel® VT) can eliminate concerns about client virtualization performance.

In this proof of concept study, Intel IT examined the viability of abstracting the client operating system from the hardware platform using virtualization. The findings of the study show that client virtualization and the “managed desktop workspace” enable enterprises to simplify the way they provision new desktops and notebooks to their employees, creating opportunities for cost savings and reduced cycle time. However, challenges were identified in the areas of security, performance, and user experience.

Intel worked with Union Pacific to construct a wireless sensor network that could continuously capture and analyze a wide range of data from trains moving along the track. See details in the case study.

Intel worked with Union Pacific to construct a wireless sensor network that could continuously capture and analyze a wide range of data from trains moving along the track.  See details in the case study. 

The National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois chose Quad-Core Intel® Xeon® processors for its 9,600-core “Abe” supercomputer, which offers academic researchers, businesses, and members of industry access to outstanding processing performance for solving a full range of science and business problems.  Read the case study.

A detailed return on investment analysis by Intel IT showed that we can reduce data center costs by refreshing all servers after four years.

Intel IT planned, engineered, and has begun deploying a virtualized business-computing production environment at several data centers, a rollout that will continue through 2008. The initiative has already confirmed anticipated virtualization benefits such as faster, more automated deployment. Intel is initially consolidating older servers running applications that are not mission-critical; but the company sees opportunities to achieve 16:1 consolidation ratios. This paper discusses the methodology used to achieve these results.  

Intel IT compared the performance of two and four processor-socket servers in a virtualized environment.  This virtualization benchmark study examined server performance, total cost of ownership and scalability for a variety of deployment scenarios.

Intel IT developed a unique standardized threat agent library (TAL) that provides a consistent, up-to-date reference describing the human agents that pose threats to IT systems and other information assets. The TAL quickly helps risk managers identify accurately and understand the importance of relevant threat agents. The library consists of 22 standardized archetypes defined using eight common attributes; the archetypes represent external and internal threat agents ranging from industrial spies to untrained employees. The library is designed to overcome the lack of standard threat agent definitions and the problem that threat information is often fragmented and sensationalized.   This white paper discusses the process Intel used to develop the TAL, and also includes a current library of threat agents and their defining attributes.