Intel's Server CPU plans for 2002 - and pricing:
Note the RAPID drop in Xeon 2.2 GHz pricing in May - I think Intel is going to preempt the Hamster - so that it is introduced as another MAD money loser !
xbitlabs.com
Thursday, March 07, 2002
Intel's Server Plans [3:55 pm]
The situation in the server market is changing now. Intel introduces Hyper-Threading technology, pushes forward IA-64 architecture and replaces RDRAM with DDR SDRAM. Let’s see what the nearest Intel’s plans in the server market look like:
Q1’02. It seems that there have been enough novelties among server processors since the beginning of the year. Remember the launching of Pentium III-S 1.4GHz, the first shipments of processors on Prestonia core. However, there is one more event to come in March: Intel will announce the so long-awaited Xeon MP for multi-processor servers. Though this CPU will be produced with 0.18micron technology it will have an L3 cache. In March, on March 12 to be more exact, Intel will present: Xeon MP 1.6GHz with 1MB L3 cache and Xeon MP 1.4GHz and 1.5GHz with 512KB L3 cache.
Q2’02. In early May Intel will launch a new Xeon 2.4GHz on Prestonia core. By the way, throughout the whole year the working frequencies of Xeon (Prestonia) will run nearly neck and neck with those of Pentium 4 (Northwood). In June Intel will start shipping the new IA-64 McKinley CPU with i870 chipset. The first McKinley processors will work at 1GHz and feature 1.5MB or 3MB L3 cache.
Q3’02. In this quarter Intel will launch the last server CPU on Tualatin-512 core aka Pentium III-S 1.53GHz. They will also announce Xeon (Prestonia) 2.6GHz working with 400MHz bus.
Q4'02.This period promises to be very rich in all sorts of events. In the first place Xeon MP family will acquire a new 0.13micron Galltin core. That is why the working frequency of Xeon MP processors will rise up to 2Ghz on the spot, and the L3 cache size – up to 2MB. Intel will announce Xeon MP (Gallatin) with smaller 1MB L3 cache. The second event of the quarter is the shift to faster 533MHz bus. In Q4 we will see two versions of Xeon 2.8GHz CPU: for 400MHz bus and for 533MHz bus. The increase in bus speed will be accompanied by the launching of new server chipsets such as: Plumas 533 (updated i7500E) and Placer. Placer promises to become an even more complex solution than Plumas 533. It will support AGP 8x and more DDR SDRAM.
Q1’03. Intel is going to launch Xeon (Prestonia) 3.0GHz for 400MHz and 533MHz bus, as well as new IA-64 Madison CPUs with 3MB and 6MB L3 cache.
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Upcoming Server CPU Prices [3:36 pm] Rat
A few days ago we told you about the new prices of the Desktop processors from Intel. Now we suggest taking a closer look at the coming changes in the server CPU price-list:
CPU Current Price April 14 May 26
Xeon 2.4 $615 (at launch)
Xeon 2.2 $615 $465 $262
Xeon 2.0A $417 $305 $224
Xeon 2.0 $396 $316 $256
Xeon 1.8 $251 $224 $192
Xeon 1.7 $224 $202
Pentium III-S 1.4 $316 $294
As usual, a few comments of ours:
In general, Intel is selling its server processors relatively cheaply. As you can see, the cost of Xeon CPU is only $20-$40 higher than that of Pentium 4 working at the same core clock frequency. In fact, this is the price of enabled HyperThreading in Xeon CPUs, since this is the only difference between Xeon (Prestonia) and Pentium 4 (Northwood).
If the 0.18micron desktop CPUs cost less than their faster 0.13micron brothers, then in the server market this logic doesn’t work. Intel offers new Xeon (Prestonia) at a lower price than old Xeon (Foster) in order to speed up the migration to more progressive processors in the server field.
After the price-reduction on May 26, the fastest Xeon 2.4GHz CPU will cost over two times more than Xeon 2.2GHz. This is a very interesting fact, especially bearing in mind that there are no architectural differences between the two processors.
We would also like to note that the fastest Pentium III-S CPU is more expensive than the slowest Xeon (Foster) processor as well as the slowest Xeon (Prestonia) one. This way, Intel gives to understand that this processor is not recommended any more.
Besides, they also claim that when the shift to 533MHz bus is completed the CPUs with faster bus will cost about $20-$30 more than the processors with slower bus but working at the same core clock frequency. By the way, the processors for desktops should not feature the same price difference. |
