In tandem with Intel's Nehalem 5500 launch Monday, HP rolled out it latest servers claiming that its widgetry is the brightest bulb in the industry's pack and exploits Intel's underlying technology more than most.

For starters the so-called G6 generation is supposed to double the performance of the last HP machines and advance energy efficiency, automation and virtualization.

It's going to say that its G6 generation gets 40x the performance/watt than the G4 generation, 4.7 times the dual-core G5 and 2.1 times the G5 quad core.

Despite the economic slowdown, it's HP's biggest server announcement ever, totaling 11 new blade, rack and tower servers, combined with enticing financing programs including zero percent financing and purchase and lease back of existing widgetry.

HP has come up with widgetry such as its so-called Sea of Sensors, 32 observations posts that track thermal activity and adjust fans, memory and I/O for cooling and efficiency. Users can also pick from four power supplies to match their workload, a technique that promises 92% or better energy efficiency in most real-world situations. And there's HP Dynamic Power Capping, which reallocates power and cooling resources in the data center by putting a lid on the power servers draw by keeping an eye on each one.

HP says that means users can redeem over-provisioned energy.

One thing HP's's figured out is how to exert more discreet control over the six fans in its boxes. It's going for a patent although it borrowed the technology from the car, aeronautics and oil and gas industries.

The company is bundling its Insight Control Environment management console into all new machines for the first time, promising to reduce operating expenses by up to $48,000 for every hundred users.

It's also got the first interconnect technology to allocate the bandwidth of a 10gb Ethernet port across four NICs, eliminating the need for more network hardware and enabling users deploying VMs to save up to 55% in network equipment costs.

The new HP machines are supposed to deliver twice the storage and memory of the older generation as well as the 100% increase in overall performance, which means users should need half the number of servers.

Most models are available now or will be in the next few weeks at prices starting at $999-$2,105.