Workstation Chipset i860 upgrade..???

[kwisatzCA]

Does anyone know when or what will be available in the form of an upgrade to the Xeon i860 platform, I know there is the E7500, but that is a server chipset, I'm looking for a dual Xeon chipset hopefully paired with the ICH4 or equivalent.

 

[Diable]

The 533mhz version of the i860(code named Plumas)won't be released until the second half of this year. More then likely a version of the ICH4 south bridge will be used but it will probably be called something else when paired with the i860.

 

[kwisatzCA]

I thought that Plumas was the E7500 and the Plumas 533 is just the 533 version of the same server chipset...Correct me if I'm wrong...

 

[dullard]

A couple rule-of-thumbs that I use:

Xeon chipsets are 5-6 months behind Pentium chipsets. So if the 533 MHz P4 chipset was released in May, you would be looking at a 533 MHz Xeon chipset in October.

Xeon chip speeds are 1-2 months behind Pentium chip speeds (once a chipset is available of course). Thus if the 533MHz Xeon is released in October it will be at the speed of the September's fastest P4 (2.66 GHz?).

To me dual 3.0 GHz Xeons by Q1 2003 look quite nice.

 

[Vegito]

i'm in the same boat.. e7500 doesn't have agp slots.. not good for games..

i'm gonna probably get the supermicro i860 instead...