Intel is planning to release a system with 16 processing cores by the end of the summer. 

The new platform, codenamed 'Caneland', will feature four processor sockets, each able to support the company's latest quad-core chips. The systems were first demonstrated in October last year. 

Kirk Skaugen, vice president and general manager of server products at Intel, revealed in a company video that the Clarkson chipset and Tigerton processors it will use have been shipping to OEMs since June, and that the first products are expected in September. 

The Caneland architecture will initially be used only in server systems, although Skaugen said that the company eventually hopes to extend it in some form to consumer offerings.

The Tigerton processors, which top out at 2.93GHz, are the first of Intel's quad-core chips to be designed to run in multiprocessor systems. A 50-watt version for use in blade servers will also be available.

The chipset will offer a direct connection between each of the four chips, allowing the processors to swap data more quickly.

Intel hopes that the new platform will appeal to customers not only for its performance, but for the value of its next-generation design.

"We are going to be able to double the performance of the previous generation of Xeon multiprocessor systems," said Skaugen.

"But we will also have some nice headroom with future processors that will plug into these sockets, so there will be investment protection as well."