Intel's Server Roadmap

Thin-server Pentium IIIs ahoy!

By Tony Smith • Get more from this author

Posted in Channel, 24th July 2001 12:31 GMT

Free research: Application platforms, the state of play

Intel's server processor roll-out programme remains broadly unchanged from the roadmap we saw early this year.

High-speed Pentium 4-based Xeon processor will drive the mainstream one- and two-way server markets, with Itanium coming in at the top end of the workstation arena.

Itanium will share the four- and eight-way server markets with lower-speed but on-die L3 cache-equipped Xeons. The Pentium III Xeon will cater for the low-end of the workstation, one- and two-way server markets.

More recently, however, we've noticed Intel's interest in the low-power server arena, triggered by California's power crisis and moves made into that territory by Transmeta. The parts are akin to Intel's mobile-oriented Low-voltage Pentium IIIs. So at the end of this year, Intel's diary shows the launch of a 700MHz 0.13 micron Tualatin-based server processor, followed in Q1 2001 by a version for two-way systems. By Q3 2002, the line should have been boosted to over 750MHz.

Next year should also see the transition from 0.18 micron Xeons (codenamed Foster) to die-shrunk 0.13 micron versions (codenamed Prestonia), just as desktop P4s will shift to the 0.13 micron Northwood. ®

August 2001

·2GHz Xeon - 0.18 micron Foster - 256KB on-die L2 (workstation, uni- and dual-processer servers)

Q4 2001

·Itanium - McKinley (pilot programme)
·700MHz Pentium III - 0.13 micron Tualatin - 512KB L2, 100MHz FSB, 1.1V core (uni-processor thin, low-power servers)

Q1 2002

·1.6GHzGHz Xeon - 0.13 micron Prestonia - 512KB/1MB on-die L3 (four- and eight-way servers)
·2GHz, 2.2GHz Xeon - 0.13 micron Prestonia (workstation, uni- and dual-processer servers)
·1.4GHz Pentium III - 0.13 micron Tualatin - 512KB on-die L2
·700MHz Pentium III - 0.13 micron Tualatin - 512KB L2, 100MHz FSB, 1.1V core (dual-processor thin, low-power servers)
·Chipset: Plumas - DDR support + Infiniband

Q2 2002

·2.4GHz Xeon - 0.13 micron Prestonia (workstation, uni- and dual-processer servers)
·Itanium - McKinley

Q3 2002

·750MHz Pentium III - 0.13 micron Tualatin - 512KB L2, 100MHz FSB, 1.1V core (uni- and dual-processor thin, low-power servers)