Intel Debuts Xeon With 64-Bit Extensions

"It's the beginning of the next generation," says Robert Schaffer, president of Source Micro, a VAR in Randolph, N.J. "For systems builders, we're going to have a lot of inventory issues. It'll be a whole changeover on the high end. On the one hand, you'll be getting additional revenue. On the other hand, you'll have to turn your inventory for a new platform."

The Intel part, formerly code-named Nancona, is debuting alongside a companion workstation chipset. A separate chipset supporting servers is set to appear within 60 days.

Intel is counting on the new Xeon to help it plant a stake in the market for hybrid 32/64-bit workstations and servers. Such systems run both 32- and 64-bit applications, powered by extensions that support 64-bit addressing and data registers.

AMD kicked off the hybrid arena a little more than a year ago, when it debuted its AMD64 architecture and companion extensions. These are implemented in AMD's Opteron server and Athlon desktop processors. Intel's extensions, which it calls EM64T, are compatible with AMD's.

(The 32/64 hybrid arena is one rung in computing power below "true" 64-bit processors, which are 64-bit only. Players here including Intel's Itanium, IBM's Power architecture, and HP's PA-RISC.)

Perhaps because of AMD's lead in the extensions, Intel wasn't trumpeting EM64T too loudly on Monday. Rather, Intel emphasized the new Xeon as a harbinger of two other advancements in platform architecture: PCI Express and Double Data Rate 2 (DDR2) memory.

"What we're trying to get across to the world is, we're making a sustained investment at the platform level," says Phil Brace, director of marketing for Intel's enterprise products group. "It goes beyond the instruction set. It's everything combined that gives the value proposition."

PCI Express brings a faster, 800-MHz system bus to the Intel platform. DDR2 boosts memory bandwidth by 11 percent compared with existing DDR 333 memory, while cutting power consumption 40 percent, according to Intel.

"Everybody's been waiting with baited breath for PCI Express and DDR2," Source Micro's Schaffer says.

Intel says the 3.6 Xeon is shipping in volume now. Volume pricing is $361 in quanitities of 1,000.

"Customers have aleady been enquiring about it," Schaffer adds.