Intel Announces Latest Pentium III Xeon Processors Offering Higher Levels of Performance, Headroom and Scalability; Profusion Chipset for 8-Way Enterprise Servers Also Shipping Today - Pentium III Xeon 550 - Product Announcement

Edge: Work-Group Computing Report, August 30, 1999

Intel Corporation Monday announced the latest versions of its Pentium III Xeon processor family for server and workstation platforms. These additions to the Pentium III Xeon processor family provide the headroom and scalability necessary to keep up with the increasing performance demands and workload of today's growing Internet economy.

The three new 550 MHz processors incorporate 512 KB, 1 MB and 2 MB of Level 2 (L2) cache which support four-way and greater server and workstation configurations.

Intel also announced that it is shipping its Profusion chipset, enabling eight-way Pentium III Xeon processor based servers. These highly available eight-way Intel based platforms provide (IT) departments with the ability to consolidate their application infrastructure and provide the headroom necessary to better manage a growing and unpredictable e-business environment.

In addition, Profusion offers performance comparable with proprietary RISC-based platforms at substantially lower price points. More than twenty OEMs are expected to announce systems based on the technology in the coming weeks. Several OEMs have already demonstrated industry-leading performance and price/performance results on top enterprise application benchmarks, showing at least 1.6 times the scalability of existing 4-way Intel-based platforms.

"With the emergence of the Internet as a critical business tool, the need for greater performance, scalability, availability and reliability in servers and workstations increases daily," said John Miner, vice president and general manager of Intel's Communications Products Group. "By offering industry-leading performance and value for 2-way, 4-way and now 8-way servers, our Pentium III Xeon processor is enabling businesses to meet and exceed the demands that they face today and as they grow."

Broad industry support for these platforms continues, including operating system solutions by Unixware, Linux, Solaris, Netware and Windows NT as well as leading database and enterprise application vendors. In addition, a wide range of hardware system vendors plan to announce the availability of four-way and eight-way server systems based on the Pentium III Xeon processor 550 MHz in the next months.

The Profusion chipset was co-developed by Intel (through Intel's acquisition of Corollary) and Compaq. Intel developed the memory and crossbar switch technology and is manufacturing the chipset while Compaq was responsible for the development of the I/O portion.

In 1,000-unit quantities, the Pentium III Xeon processor 550 MHz with 512 KB L2 cache costs $931, with 1 MB L2 cache costs $1,980, and with 2 MB L2 cache costs $3,692.

Intel, the world's largest chip maker, is also a leading manufacturer of computer, networking and communications products. Additional information about Intel is available at www.intel.com.

For complete benchmark information on Intel Pentium III Xeon processors, visit the Intel Web site at: www.intel.com/procs/servers/performance/benchmark.htm.>

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