Get ready for the Xeon server parade

Compaq, Data General, IBM and others to use powerful new 32-bit Intel processor.

By Marc Songini
Network World, 6/29/98

Intel Corp. this week will introduce the Pentium II Xeon, a server and workstation processor that's faster and more flexible than its predecessors.

Compaq Computer Corp., Data General Corp., Dell Computer Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co. and IBM will be among the companies rolling out Xeon machines to address the needs of customers looking for more powerful application servers.

Intel's new 32-bit processor is faster than the company's existing Pentium Pro processor, with a clock speed of 400-MHz compared with the Pentium Pro's maximum of 200-MHz.

Xeon is more flexible than the current Pentium II in that vendors can combine up to four Xeons in a server. They could only team up to two of the earlier Pentium IIs per server.

The 32-bit Xeon chip announcement comes in the wake of news that Intel's 64-bit chip, code-named Merced, will be delayed for at least six months.

Intel confirmed shortly before press time that some Xeon systems will be delayed as well, probably by only a few weeks. Intel discovered a bug that affects some Xeon implementations, but has already developed a workaround, a spokeswoman said.

Xeon attributes include support for 512M bytes or 1M byte of cache; later this year, the maximum cache will expand to 2M bytes. Additionally, the processor can access information in its cache at full speed, whereas the Pentium II could only do so at half of its maximum processing speed.

Xeon's bus runs at 100-MHz for speedy I/O processing. In contrast, the Pentium Pro buzzes along at 66-MHz. Xeon will be able to handle up to 64G bytes of memory.

"There is always a need for more and more speed and memory," said Duncan Schleiss, director of marketing for Fisher Rosemont Systems, an Austin, Texas, hardware and software company that uses Dell servers. "What we do is pretty CPU intensive."

The Xeon processor complies with Intel's Wired For Management (WFM) initiative standard, offering administrators management information on voltage amounts, cache loads and system temperature.

While the majority of vendors rolling out Xeon servers will be running Windows NT with them, the chip has been coached to understand a variety of Unix dialects, including Santa Cruz Operation's UnixWare and Sun Microsystems, Inc.'s Solaris.

Intel said Xeon will cost server vendors up to $150 more than what they already pay for the Pentium Pro. In other words, Intel said customers shouldn't blame the company if Xeon servers prove to be expensive.

Xeon power

While most of the server vendors are keeping their exact Xeon machine plans quiet until this week, a few companies shared some details.

Compaq plans to roll out Xeon versions of its ProLiant 6000 and 7000 servers. The machines will be geared toward handling heavy-duty applications, such as enterprise resource planning, data warehouse and online transaction processing programs.

Compaq declined to specify its pricing and availability plans for the servers.

Data General will announce a non-uniform memory access server called the AV 25000 that initially will be powered by four Xeons. The box, designed for large data centers, will run the DG/UX version of Unix. The AV 25000 will be available in September and will start at less than $100,000.