Pure Performance, Scalability and Broad Industry Support Combine to Bring Industry Leading Price Performance to Enterprise and Technical Computing

SANTA CLARA, Calif., June 29, 1998 – Intel Corporation today introduced a new family of branded processors designed to meet the demanding requirements of mid-range and higher servers and workstations. Consistent with Intel’s strategy to design and deliver unique processor products targeted for specific market segments, the new Pentium® II Xeon™ processors feature technical innovations specifically designed for workstations and servers which utilize demanding business applications such as Internet services, corporate data warehousing, digital content creation, electronic and mechanical design automation. In a show of broad industry support, providers of advanced applications and operating systems joined with leading workstation and server vendors to showcase the performance of the Pentium II Xeon processor at today’s introduction.

The Pentium II Xeon processor delivers industry leading performance from its larger and faster Level 2 (L2) caches, multiprocessing capabilities and a 100 MHz system bus. Systems based on the Pentium II Xeon processor can be configured to scale to four or eight processors and beyond. The combination of the pure performance of the Pentium II Xeon processor and this scalability brings exceptional levels of price performance to the server and workstation market segments.

"The pure performance of the Pentium II Xeon processors will extend the Intel architecture into the highest reaches of the enterprise, as well as address the most demanding workstation computing tasks," said Paul Otellini, executive vice president, Intel Architecture Business Group. "Systems based on Pentium II Xeon processors will deliver the performance and features of comparable proprietary systems but at nearly half the price."

Pentium II Xeon processor-based servers deliver the industry’s best four-processor TPC-C result to date with a rate of 18,127.40 tpmC running on Compaq’s ProLiant 7000 6/400 with Microsoft Windows NT*4.0 and SQL Server 7.0. (The benchmark measures the rate of common database transactions in an online transaction processing environment such as a customer service call center). The result of this performance is available at a tremendous price/performance point of $26.06/tpmC.

Demonstrating the processor’s performance for workstations, Intel is releasing performance results for the industry-recognized Pro/ENGINEER Bench98™ mechanical CAD benchmark. Published by "Pro/E: The Magazine" to demonstrate the performance differences that actual users would experience in doing typical tasks, Intel has measured a score of 48 weighted minutes*** with a Pentium II Xeon processor at 400 MHz with 512KB L2 cache. This is one minute faster than the previously-reported best score.

In addition to the performance features, systems incorporating the Pentium II Xeon processors will integrate seamlessly into business infrastructures with the aid of the processor’s System Management bus (SMbus) capabilities and other advanced manageability features. Overall, the combination of the performance, scalability, and manageability of Pentium II Xeon processor-based systems will enable new levels of solutions from a wide range of OEMs at a significant savings over proprietary solutions.

Key features of the Pentium II Xeon processor include:

• 0.25 micron P6 microarchitecture core featuring Dynamic Execution, operating at 400 MHz
• 512KB and 1 megabyte L2 cache options
• Intel’s Dual Independent Bus featuring:
• 400 MHz L2 cache bus, operating at the same speed as the processor core
• 100 MHz transactional System Bus and 100 MHz SDRAM and EDO memory support, allowing faster communication between the processor and other parts of the computer system
• Support for greater than 4GB of memory for servers using Intel® Extended Server Memory Architecture
• Addressable memory support up to 64GB
• New System management features via System Management bus (SMbus)

In 1,000-unit quantities, the Pentium II Xeon processor 400 MHz with 512 KB L2 cache costs $1,124.00, and the Pentium II Xeon processor 400 MHz with 1 MB L2 cache costs $2,836.00.

In addition to the Pentium II Xeon processor announcement today, there will be two chipsets available from Intel. The 440GX AGPset for workstations and for servers with one and two processors, provides 2GB memory support and the fast AGP graphics port adapter. The Intel 450NX PCIset, for servers with four processors and greater, provides up to 8GB memory support and multiple 32-bit and 64-bit PCI buses. All of these components will be available as of today. Systems which combine the Pentium II Xeon processor with the 440GX AGPset have achieved product certification. The Pentium II Xeon processor combined with the 450NX PCIset will achieve production certification within the next month.

For resellers and integrators, the boxed Intel Pentium II Xeon processors, along with supporting motherboards for both servers and workstations, will be available later this year from Intel Product Dealers.

All processors announced today are produced on Intel’s 0.25 micron process technology, which enables high-volume manufacturing of processors to supply a broader base of users. Intel, the industry leader in 0.25 micron process technology, will be producing all of its microprocessors on this process by the end of 1998.

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

*For complete benchmark information on Intel Pentium II Xeon processors, visit the Intel Web site at: www.intel.com/PentiumII/Xeon/home.htm.
**Third party marks and brands are property of their respective holders.
***Results obtained using the "Pro/E: The Magazine" Workstation Benchmark files, courtesy of ConnectPress. The Intel Pentium II Xeon processor results have not been audited by "Pro/E: The Magazine."

© 1998 Intel Corporation