Intel Sees Surge In 64-bit Xeons

On the server front, Intel says it will soon begin shipping a multiprocessing implementation of its 64-bit Xeon. The device, dubbed Xeon MP, will enable systems builders to field four-way servers aimed at high-end enterprise markets.

But the big server news came with Intel's revelation about the apparent burgeoning popularity of its 64-bit Xeon family as a whole. The first of those devices wasn't introduced until last summer, when Intel added it as an alternative to its existing 32-bit Xeons and as a competitor to AMD's pacesetting Opteron CPU.

In the six months following its introduction, 1 million 64-bit Xeons have been sold, Phil Brace, director of marketing for Intel's Digital Enterprise Group, said during a conference call today. "In the fourth quarter of 2004, our [sales of] 64-bit Xeons actually exceeded 32-bit Xeons," Brace added.

By the end of February, Brace said he expects shipments of 64-bit Xeons to hit 2 million units.

As for the desktop, Intel today lifted the lid on its new 600 Series of 64-bit Pentium processors. The chip family is a follow-on to the Pentium 4 Prescott line. The 600 Series CPUs feature an 800-MHz front-side bus, 2 MB of on-die Level 2 cache and Intel's EM64T 64-bit instruction-set extensions.

The processors, which will be available in retail boxed versions for VARs and systems builders, mark Intel's broadly available 64-bit Pentiums. (An OEM version of a 64-bit Pentium began shipping to IBM last summer.)

"We [now] have two clear 64-bit capabilities," Brace said. "We're bringing 64-bit computing from the data center to the desktop."

Along with competition from AMD's Athlon 64 desktop processor, Intel's release of a 64-bit Pentium may have been spurred by the imminent availability of a 64-bit version of Windows XP. Though the operating system isn't officially shipping, a so-called "release to manufacturing" version has been made to developers by Microsoft. Though Microsoft and Intel aren't commenting, talk has been circulating that this will be the final beta before an imminent official release.