*Intel Server News*

[SSXeon5]

Xeon

This September Intel will announce two new representatives of the Xeon family with 2.6GHz and 2.8GHz core frequencies. Although the working frequencies of Xeon processors grow up nearly as fast as those of Pentium 4 CPUs, and they are based on the 0.13micron Prestonia core supporting HyperThreading and 512KB L2 cache, they are still intended for 400MHz Quad Pumped Bus.

The transition of this family to faster 533MHz bus will happen only in Q4, when the new Xeon versions working at 2.66GHz and 2.8GHz come out. The curious thing about it is the fact that as soon as these processors move to 533MHz bus, Intel will introduce a new processor Socket for them. New Xeon with 533MHz Quad Pumped Bus will fit into Socket604, which is backward compatible with the today?s Socket603 processors. For these new processors Intel will also introduce a new E7501 chipset, which will be none other but an updated version of the Intel E7500 used in today?s systems. Also 533MHz Xeon CPUs will work in workstations together with Intel E7505 (Granite Bay) supporting DDR266 SDRAM and AGP 8x.

In early 2003, the market will welcome new Xeon CPUs working at 3GHz+. To be more exact, Intel will launch Xeon 3GHz for 400MHz bus and Xeon 3.06GHz for 533MHz bus.

In H2 2003 Intel is planning to enhance the Xeon family with a new Nocona core manufactured with 0.13micron (this is a typo it should be .09micron, like the prescott core) technology. Nocona is expected to fall into 3.2GHz+ range. Its architecture will be based on that of the corresponding Pentium 4 Prescott core, which means that the new server processors will feature 1MB L2 cache and be intended for 533MHz and 667MHz bus.

However, Intel has no intention to move Xeon to 667MHz bus before 2004, which implies that the first Nocona based CPUs will fit into the same Socket604 and will also be supported by Intel E7501 and E7505 chipsets. As for 667MHz bus, the first Nocona processor for this bus are to come only in H1 2004 and they will need a new server chipset aka Lindenhurst. Unfortunately, no details about this solution are known yet.

Xeon MP

This CPU family for multi-processor servers is one of the last ones by Intel using 0.18micron technology. The currently selling Xeon MP based on 0.18micron Foster MP core (server analogy to Willamette) work at 1.6GHz, 1.5GHz and 1.4GHz, feature 256KB L2 cache and 512KB/1MB L3 cache. They will be produced until the end of the year. Note that these processors use 400MHz bus and fit into the traditional Socket603.

In early 2003 the Xeon MP family will finally move to a new 0.13micron Gallatin core. As soon as they get this new core, Xeon MP processors will acquire larger caches: 512KB L2 cache and up to 2MB L3 cache! (although there will also be models with 512KB and 1MB L3 cache as well). The bus frequency will remain equal to 400MHz.

Another core change in Xeon MP family is expected to happen in H1 2004 and will be connected with the introduction of finer 0.09micron manufacturing technology. However, unfortunately, we don?t have any more details on that yet.

I would like to point out however, that Intel is not going to produce any chipsets for 4- and 8-way systems, which are actually the direct application field for Xeon MP processors. They suppose that these systems will be built either on the chipsets suggested by server makers or on the ServerWorks GC-HE core logic.

Itanium 2

The 64bit Intel Itanium 2 processor family will also undergo some changes in the near future. The currently manufactured with 0.18micron technology Itanium 2 CPUs working at 1GHz and featuring 1.5MB or 3MB L3 cache will remain in the product range only until mid 2003. In Q2 2003 the company is going to release a few new modifications of this CPU called Madison and Deerfield.

Madison and Deerfield are planned to become a logical continuation of Itanium 2 family and will be fully compatible with it. All three CPUs will fit into one and the same Socket700, support the same 400MHz bus and work with the same Intel E8870 chipset allowing 2-, 4- and 8-way systems with 4-channel DDR200 SDRAM (up to 128GB), as well as PCI-X and Infiniband.

A better value Deerfield will be designed for dual-processor IA64 servers and feature only 3MB L2 cache.

However, Madison targeted for 4- and 8-way systems will support higher working frequencies and up to 6MB L3 cache.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/story.html?id=1029642653


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