Intel's professional server CPU's, which technical differences to "normal" x86 CPU's?

Benedikt

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Jan 2, 2002
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Hi there,

I am interested which technical differences exist there if you compare x86-CPU's for home desktop use (P4, Athlon) to, let's say, Intel's XEON family.

I read once that the only difference is an SMB bus interface for temperature measuring, and some fault-tolerance data... ?????


Thanks for your reply, and mods please don't lock this thread as it's no buying help, instead I'm only interested in the technical details....


Greetings

Bene
 

CTho9305

Elite Member
Jul 26, 2000
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nothing for the CPUs you mentioned. A Xeon is just a p4 with a lot of cache. now, itaniums and sparcs are very different.
 

Benedikt

Member
Jan 2, 2002
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Yeah OK,
but could we please let the L2-Cache away now?
I meant some other things, there must be a difference... Or do they sell the same processors (except the L2-Cache) for a different price?

Greetings

BW
 

AndyHui

Administrator Emeritus<br>Elite Member<br>AT FAQ M
Oct 9, 1999
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Desktop Pentium 4 has its SMP circuitry disabled.

A regular XEON (also known as XEON DP) can operate in SMP mode, with a maximum of 2 processors.

A XEON MP can operate with more than 2 processors, and can also come with large L2 and L3 caches.
 

rimshaker

Senior member
Dec 7, 2001
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It really is all about bigger and more levels of cache memory. That, and guaranteed multiprocessor support.... oh and they cost an arm and leg.
 

CTho9305

Elite Member
Jul 26, 2000
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Originally posted by: Benedikt
Yeah OK,
but could we please let the L2-Cache away now?
I meant some other things, there must be a difference... Or do they sell the same processors (except the L2-Cache) for a different price?

Greetings

BW

They sell the same (basic) chip as P4 Xeon, P4, and the newest celery.
They sold the same chip as P3 and P3 celery and I think P3 Xeon.
 

SuperTool

Lifer
Jan 25, 2000
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saying it's the same chip, just larger cache is like saying it's same runner just longer legs.
Memory organization is very important, and cache size is very important especially for large applications or multithreading.
 

CTho9305

Elite Member
Jul 26, 2000
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Originally posted by: SuperTool
saying it's the same chip, just larger cache is like saying it's same runner just longer legs.
Memory organization is very important, and cache size is very important especially for large applications or multithreading.

Yup, but that doesn't mean it isnt it isn't the same chip with different cache sizes...