Intel Launches Latest Xeon Processor

Intel's Xeon multiprocessor (MP) chip will be priced at $1,177 for the 1.5GHz version, $1,980 for the 1.9GHz version and $3,692 for the 2GHz version. All prices are based on 1,000-unit quantities.

"Don't interpret that [this launch moves everything ahead," said Lisa Graff, vice president of server product marketing at Intel. "We're hitting the rest of our products on all cylinders. We'll just do more of it. We haven't given any other [road map specifics besides that at this time," she said.

New Xeon is Intel's first multiprocessor chip to be based on the 0.13-micron manufacturing process.

At the same time, however, Graff and others at Intel are signaling that additional advancements on the Xeon server platform will become public over the next several weeks. Between its higher-end Xeons and 64-bit Itanium platform, Intel is focusing on growing its share of the high-end server market, which accounts for 11 percent of server shipments and 60 percent of server market revenue.

Intel also was slated to launch the 3GHz version of its Pentium 4 processor last week, thereby fulfilling Intel President and COO Paul Otellini's prediction last year that the high-performing desktop chip would be available by the end of 2002.

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The new Xeon MP chip provides performance enhancements, including double the integrated L3 cache. It's also the first multiprocessor chip from Intel to be based on the 0.13-micron manufacturing process, the company said.

Systems builders are showing more interest in four-way systems,solutions that give them "access to a higher-end market and the ability to have more scaling and headroom," Graff said.

John Boghosian, owner of JWB and Associates, an Atlanta-based systems builder, said he believes the new Xeons would be a good fit for customers that want to scale up to four-, six- and eight-way servers. "[The new chips are going to have a real impact on people who are building new systems," Boghosian said.

With the introduction of the new Xeon, and the rollout of 3GHz Pentium 4s, Intel has signaled that it will drop prices across its product line as it heads into the home stretch of the fourth quarter. The new Xeon MP chips are priced the same as the existing Xeon processors at a lower clock speed.