Intel sheds more light on server processors

Intel Tuesday revealed new details on its Xeon and Itanium server processors, as the company continues its quest to unseat IBM and Sun from their positions atop the high-end server market.

It’s business as usual for Intel with new versions of the Xeon chip. The Santa Clara company will add larger cache sizes and increase the speed of Xeons due out this year and in 2004, said Lisa Graff, director of enterprise processor marketing at Intel, in an interview. On the Itanium side of the house, Intel made things a bit more exciting by releasing speeds and a second half of 2003 release date for its low-voltage Itanium 2 processor – codenamed Deerfield.

The popularity of the Xeon chip has helped Intel hold a lion’s share of the server processor market. The company currently claims to power almost 90% of the world’s servers.

It is looking to build on this success with the release of new Xeon chips for one and two-processor servers in the third quarter of this year, Graff said. The new chip will ship with a 1M-byte cache, which is close to double the cache on current Xeon DP chips. Intel will then follow that in the fourth quarter with a chip – codenamed Nocona – that will have a higher clock speed along with the larger cache.

Intel also looks to boost the performance of its Xeon MP processor used in larger servers. The company will kick clock speeds well above 2 GHz this year and eventually add a 4M-byte cache instead of 2M bytes to the chip, Graff said. In addition, Intel plans to release a processor codenamed Potomac in 2004, as reported first earlier this year by IDG News Service. This would be the first Xeon MP chip from Intel built with a 90-nanometer manufacturing process.

Intel plans to release a chipset for the Nocona servers in 2004 and follow that with a chipset for four-processor Potomac servers as well.

While Xeon has been a large success for Intel, the chip only plays in the 32-bit processor market where systems are generally smaller and cheaper than the 64-bit RISC processor powered systems from IBM and Sun. Intel created the Itanium processor to go after this more lucrative high-end server market.

“We always look at ways to expand our business especially with regard to the revenue picture,” Graff said.

Thus far, the Itanium 2 processor has seen modest adoption, but Intel hopes to attract a new set of users with the Low Voltage Itanium 2 chip, which will fit in smaller, less expensive systems than the regular Itanium 2.

The first Low Voltage Itanium 2 will arrive at 1 GHz and with 1.5M bytes of Level 3 cache. The chip will consume 62 watts at maximum power, which is close to half the power consumption of the Itanium 2 chip. Intel is hoping server makers will build thin, one and two-processor rack servers with the new chip.

Intel hopes the Low Voltage Itanium 2-based servers will erode some of Sun’s market share in the low end of the 64-bit processor space, Graff said. Sun has fared better than IBM and HP with low-end RISC servers.

In total, Intel hopes to leverage its manufacturing muscle to outpace rivals with both the Xeon and Itanium chips. The company claims it will be able to roll out new, faster chips at a quicker clip than competitors due to its focus on chip-making and significant resources.