Intel imparts 64-bit Xeon MP

High-end Xeon servers have entered the era of 64-bit computing. Last week Intel unwrapped the highly anticipated 64-bit version of its Xeon MP chip. The new chips, which come in five configurations, were unveiled as part of a new line of components for multiprocessor servers. The line also includes the new E8500 chip set.

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Intel has added a much larger memory cache to the new Xeon, and it has redesigned the chip-set architecture so that the processors can more quickly communicate with other components on the chip set. The E8500 will have a 667MHz bus speed, compared with 400MHz for Intel’s previous Xeon chip set.

“The datacenter computing space has been reasonably boring for the last five years,” said Pat Gelsinger, general manager of the digital enterprise group at Intel. “I think we’ve come to a space where this will be exciting.”

To accompany the 64-bit Xeon MP, Microsoft said it plans to announce a 64-bit version of Windows Server 2003 for x86 systems at its WinHEC 2005 developers conference in Seattle in mid-April.

Windows Server 2003 x64 Edition will also improve performance for customers running 32-bit applications, said Andy Lees, corporate vice president of server and tools business at Microsoft. “If you run a 32-bit application on 64-bit Windows on 64-bit hardware, you’ll get about a 5 percent bump in performance,” Lees said. “If you add 64-bit capabilities, then things get dramatically better.”

Intel’s processors will be at the heart of new servers from a number of vendors, including Dell, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, and Unisys.

IBM is readying a follow-up to its xSeries 455 server that will scale to as many as 32 processors. HP, on the other hand, revealed intentions to cease selling its eight-way ProLiant DL740 and DL760 systems when Intel’s dual-core Xeon MP processors become available in 2006.

“We’re expecting the eight-socket market to be consumed by the four-socket dual-core market,” said Colin Lacey, director of platform marketing for industry-standard servers at HP. “Such an enormous percentage of customer requirements are covered by the four-way market that the eight-way-and-beyond marketplace is going to get marginalized.”

HP announced that it is now shipping the next generation of its four-way ProLiant 570 and 580 servers with the new processors.

IBM is charting a different course. The company has designed X3, its own chip set and server architecture, and its servers will run one copy of an operating system on as many as 32 processors, said Jay Bretzmann, product-marketing manager at IBM.

As is IBM’s high-end Xeon server, the x445, IBM’s upcoming servers are designed to allow customers to gradually scale to larger servers. 

Because of the $100 million it invested in the new X3 design, IBM now believes it can own the high end of the x86 server market, said Jonathan Eunice, an analyst at Illuminata. “HP’s resources are all committed to Itanium,” he said. “IBM doesn’t really have an Itanium business to commit to.”