Intel will be conducting a live chat to discuss its latest Xeon processors on Thursday. The online session will feature a Q&A with Intel engineers and technologists, who plan to respond to comments from analysts and IT professionals.

The discussion will be held via the Intel Communities Web site’s Server Room area, which features a bulletin board where questions are already being asked about the new processors, as well as transcripts from past online sessions.

Today marks the rollout of the Xeon 5500, code-named “Nehalem.” Four years in the making, Nehalem represents a run at improved performance—the company is “expecting to establish over 30 worldwide benchmarks” with the new chip—and a nod to a growing emphasis on power savings.

The biggest savings on Nehalem-based servers will be for those companies upgrading from earlier single-core servers. Industry estimates are that about 40 percent of installed servers are single-core systems while another 40 percent are dual-core. Intel’s Kirk Skaugen—head of the company’s server platforms group—said a conservative estimate is that companies that consolidate eight single-core servers to one quad-core Nehalem-based server could expect a payback within eight months, thanks to energy savings and other efficiencies.

The live chat will be held on Thursday, April 2 from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. Pacific (1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Eastern).