| Intel's
IA-32 (Intel Architecture 32 bit) family consist of the following
processors: Celeron, Pentium II (66/100), and Xeon. The IA-32
family is based upon the P6 or Pentium Pro core and architecture,
with MMX instructions added. Celeron -
Intel launc hed
their low-end processor in May 1998. This CPU is targeted for sub
$1,000 systems, a market in which Cyrix and AMD has already staked
out with their low-cost socket 7 processors. The Celeron is
Intel's answer to the Cyrix M2/AMD K6. The initial speed of the
CPU is 266MHz, with zero L2 cache. Intel will bump the Celeron up
to 300/333, with the addition of 128K cache, by the end of 1998.
Due to the lack of L2 cache, the performance of a Celeron/266 in
the Winstone 98 benchmark is just slightly higher than a
Pentium/233. The Celeron's memory bus will be at 66MHz. An
interesting side-effect of the lack of L2 cache is the Celeron can
be overclocked to a higher speed, without any ill effects. But you
didn't read that here . :)
- Pentium II (66/100)
- The workhorses of the IA-32 family. This consists of the
Pentium II processor we all know running at the following
speeds: 233, 266, 300, 333, 350, and 400. From 233-333 the
memory bus is 66MHz; starting at 350 and above, the memory bus
speed will be raised to 100MHz. The L2 cache for all processor
is still 512K; processor with speed 300 or higher have ECC L2
cache. From Q2 until the end of 1998, this family of processor
will be targeted at home and corporate users.
- Xeon -
Intel's answer to Digital's Alpha and Apple's G3 processor.
The Xeon processor requires a new slot 2 motherboard. (Both
the Celeron and Pentium II requires a slot 1 system.) All Xeon
processor will run at 100MHz memory bus speed; its L2 cache
will run at full CPU speed. The speed of Celeron/Pentium II's
L2 cache is half the CPU speed. For example, the L2
cache of a Pentium/266 is only 133MHz (266/2=133). The Xeon's
L2 cache will run at the same speed as the processor's speed.
In addition, the Xeon will have L2 cache size of 512K, 1MB,
and 2MB. Performance like this comes with a high price tag:
Xeon/400 with 2MB cache may be priced at $2000 (or higher)
per processor in quantities of 1,000. Yikes! Due to its
high price, the Xeon is targeted for workstations and
enterprise level servers.
And in the first quarter of 1999, Intel will introduce the
"Katmai" processor which comes with MMX2 (second
generation MMX instruction set for floating point operations).
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