Server/Workstation Forecast

Let's cook some eggs

The server/workstation market is a particularly interesting one to study. Here, you have CPUs which nobody in their right mind would want to buy, yet they fulfill arcane tasks which leave "normal" CPUs gasping. The keywords here are cache, cache, and cache, and when we're talking about cache, a familiar homophone always follows.

Of course, Intel's workstation/server platform is the Xeon, Slot-2 behemoths which are available in Pentium II and Pentium III flavors. The differentiating factor between Xeon and standard Pentium II/III processors are full-speed OFF-die cache, planted onto a PCB by the processor core. Of course, we'll see how this may potentially change...

Server/Workstation CPU Forecast Chart

133MHz wacky ways

What really piqued our interest here are the first selections. Pentium III Xeons at 600 and 667MHz with 256KB on-die cache. Bus interface? Slot-2. Now, the important fact to note is that these will be the first Xeon processors to adopt Intel's new 133MHz FSB spec. What chipset they'll run on is still in question (and undoubtedly in development), but as far as we're concerned, they exist, at least on paper.

However, one must ask the question: What's the point? With 256KB of full-speed cache, the 600/667MHz Xeons have absolutely zero over same-speed Pentium IIIs. In fact, with the appropriate slot-1 to slot-2 converter, you'd get identical performance in any application. The FiringSquad crew basically thinks this is an engineering and marketing. They aren't even going to be priced much higher than their Pentium III brothers. In October, we can expect to get a P3 Xeon 600Mhz for $615. That's only $30 more than the P3 600 will be when introduced in the same month. Slot-2 gamers rejoice?

Sever administrators will be happy to see that 2MB P3 Xeons are finally becoming available, but at an incredibly hefty $3,692. This is definitely a different league than most PC upgraders, and most folks have realized that today's games and business applications have little need for such extremes in L2 cache size.

Bye bye, Pentium II

Even as the newest members of the Xeon family are introduced, September may see the end of Pentium II Xeon production. No great loss at all, since the cost is in the cache, and at 1MB, you can get a P2X 400, P2X 450, or P3X 500 for the exact same price, namely $1,980.