Paul and thread,
zdnet.com
Xeon: The Fastest PC Chip Yet!
Intel's just-announced Xeon processor pumps up PC performance to new
heights. Michael and John explain what all the fuss is about.
June 29, 1998 -- We've said it before: We like fast PCs. We like fast
processors. As far as we're concerned, there's no such thing as too much
power -- we can always find something to do with it, from voice
recognition to intense 3-D modeling.
So Intel's announcement today of the Pentium II Xeon processor brings
smiles to our faces. The Xeon is not a completely new processor family
-- if you were expecting the Pentium III, folks, this just isn't it. In
fact, the first Xeon processor runs at the same 400-MHz speed as the
fastest Pentium II. So why all the fuss?
For one thing, Xeon processors communicate with the L2 processor cache
at the full clock speed of the processor. By comparison, standard
Pentium II chips can manage only half the CPU speed. As we explained
recently, a high CPU clock speed is all but useless if the processor is
starved for data; the full-speed cache interface should help alleviate
this bottleneck. Right now Xeon is available in 512K and 1MB cache
varieties, and a 2MB version will be available in the future.
The Xeon comes on a new cartridge that fits into a so-called Slot 2 in a
system's motherboard, and it requires a new chip set to enable it to
interface with other system components. The 440GX AGPset, the version of
the chip set that you're likely to find in machines that are positioned
as workstations rather than high-end servers, supports the 2x AGP
(Accelerated Graphics Port) specification and up to 2GB of SDRAM. (The
Xeon itself actually supports up to 64GB of memory, but as our Windows
columnist Joe Moran explains, even Windows NT can't handle that kind of
capacity.) If you've heard about the Xeon processor bug that was
discovered last week, you should know that it doesn't appear to affect
systems using the 440GX chip set.
Like the first incarnation of most Intel processors, Xeon is initially
aimed squarely at the server and high-end workstation market. And our
early tests of the product show it excelling in that capacity. The
competition here is really Unix-based workstations and servers. But
trust us: It will only be a matter of time before Xeon makes its way
into the mainstream, or at least the more performance-conscious part of
the mainstream. Frankly, we can't wait.
---------------
I can't either.
Barry |
