Scott:
BTW, will NW5 run even better on Xeon chip? Thanks for your reply.
investors.com
Xeon May Take The Neon Off
Delayed Intel Processor
Date: 6/8/98
Author: Michael Tarsala
Anew Intel Corp. microprocessor line may be coming just
in time to take the spotlight off delays involving the
company's Merced chip.
Intel will ship a new family of Pentium II chips called Xeon
on June 29. The Xeon chips are designed for workstations
and servers -products with fat profit margins. News of
Xeon comes shortly after Intel announced that its
ballyhooed Merced chips won't ship until mid-2000, rather
than late '99.
''The Merced delay is a bigger deal,'' said Mark Dicioccio,
an investment banker with Lehman Brothers Inc. in San
Francisco. ''(But Xeon) will go a long way toward
mitigating the impact of the Merced delay.''
Analysts say Merced's postponement has put many
computer makers in the lurch. Now they have to wait to
build and market systems that work with Merced chips. But
in the meantime, Xeon chips will provide a way for
businesses to upgrade their hardware without making huge
software changes that analysts expect will be needed with
Merced.
Although Intel plans to sell the new family of processors
past '00, many analysts are calling 400-megahertz Xeon the
''Merced bridge.''
More important, it allows Intel to start offering
high-powered chips that can run sophisticated Unix
operating systems as well as Microsoft Corp.'s Windows
NT.
''It's going to be an interesting time for the Intel server
business,'' said James Gruener, analyst with Boston-based
Aberdeen Group Inc. ''You're going to get bang for your
buck.''
The Xeon chips will appear in workstations that cost
$4,000 to $15,000, said an executive familiar with Intel's
plans who requested anonymity. They also will power
servers - a fast- growing computing segment - that range in
price from $6,000 to more than $100,000.
''You'll be seeing $6,000 servers with Xeon right away,''
the executive said.
Xeon's success could hinge on the chip's cost. Intel must
undercut the prices of other workstation and server
chipmakers.
Yet at the same time, analysts say the company also must
take full advantage of the larger profit margins in the
high-end chip market. Intel must battle eroding margins in
its low-end PC chips.
Intel's customers will pay $1,124 to $2,836 for each Xeon
chip, the executive said. Less- powerful Intel Pentium Pro
processors for workstations and servers will cost $1,035 to
$2,675 each.
Companies planning to use the Xeon chips include IBM
Corp., Compaq Computer Corp., Dell Computer Corp.,
Fujitsu Ltd. and NEC Corp., the source says. Silicon
Graphics Inc. is expected to ship its first workstations
running Windows NT and using Xeon chips this fall.
Performance of the Xeon chips is ''quite impressive'' says
a spokesman from Unisys Corp. Unisys now is testing the
chips. Some tests show the 400-megahertz Xeon chips are
faster than high-performance chips from Hewlett-Packard
Co., Digital Equipment Corp. and Sun Microsystems Inc.
Intel plans a 450-megahertz version of Xeon in September.
That doesn't mean computers built with Xeon chips
necessarily will be faster than other workstations and
servers, says Lou Mazzucchelli, analyst with Gerard
Klauer Mattison in New York.
''Just getting a fast engine doesn't mean you're getting a
fast car,'' Mazzucchelli said. ''One of the things you pay
for when you buy a big Sun machine or a big HP machine
is fast input and output -not just fast processing.''
But Mazzucchelli admits Xeon is the first Intel chip that
could challenge the dominance of Sun's or HP's
processors among devices based on Unix operating
systems. Intel's chips currently run Unix systems, but
those are sold mostly to smaller firms.
A manager in Sun's chip division dismissed Xeon,
pointing out it's likely to be the last chip family to use
Intel's 32-bit architecture. Merced will use a new 64-bit
architecture, which offers double the processing speed.
''(Intel is) working on an architecture that's near the end of
its life,'' said Jeff O'Neal, marketing manager for Sun's
Sparc processors. ''It's business as usual and a way to
generate press right now because they slipped on Merced.''
Xeon still is much faster than 200-megahertz Pentium Pro
chips, the only Intel workstation and server processor
option now available. Xeon-based processors will run most
applications 40% to 50% faster than Pentium Pro,
Aberdeen's Gruener says.
But one problem with the new processors is their actual
size. The Xeon chips are nearly twice as large as Intel's
other Pentium products.
''Some people are calling this Heftium,'' Mazzucchelli
said. ''It's not only huge, it's very hot.''
Xeon could be a boon to Microsoft's efforts to push its NT
operating system into ever-larger computers, Mazzucchelli
says. Many corporate users believe NT isn't ready to
handle their most crucial computing needs.
''Part of the (reason) NT runs out of gas is software, and
part is hardware,'' Mazzucchelli said. ''This . . . shifts
more of the burden on NT to deliver the potential of the
hardware.''
(C) Copyright 1998 Investors Business Daily, Inc.
Metadata: INTC MSFT IBM CPQ DELL FJTSY NIPNY SGI UIS
HWP DEC SUNW I/3675 I/3270 I/3573 I/3572 I/3621 I/3575 I/1004
E/IBD E/SN1 E/TECH |
