Intel Preps 3.50GHz Server Chips with 8MB Cache
Leading chipmaker Intel Corp. has unwrapped some of its plans concerning the server and workstation processors and chipsets. The main headliners of Intel’s pedestal and rack server roadmap – Intel Xeon MP processor code-named Potomac and Intel’s dual-core chip code-named Smithfield – finally got their target clock-speeds and cache sizes from Intel’s official documents.
Intel Xeon MP Platform Gets 3.50+GHz Speeds, 8MB Caches. Intel’s Xeon processor family for multiprocessor (MP) applications will finally be updated in Q1 2005 with chips code-named Cranford that contain 1MB of L2 cache, but operate at 3.66GHz, much higher than today’s 3.0GHz. In server environments clock-speed does not necessarily mean performance crown, as server software is seriously dependant on cache size and from that perspective Intel’s Xeon MP 3.0GHz with 4MB L3 cache may be a better choice for certain types of server deployments. Still, the processors code-named Cranford are to be made using 90nm process technology, which may allow Intel Corp. to set a bit lower prices on such products compared to previously released Intel Xeon MP processors at launch.
