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Intel launched the Xeon MP processor on Tuesday at the CeBIT trade show in Hanover, Germany, unveiling the long-awaited design for low-end multiprocessor servers, code-named Foster.

The three versions of the Xeon MP (for "multiprocessor"), designed for servers using four or more processors, clock at 1.4 GHz, 1.5 GHz, and 1.6 GHz. The chips feature three levels of integrated cache memory, adding as much as 1MB of Level 3 cache to the already existing 8KB of Level 1 and 256KB of Level 2 cache.

The 1.4-GHz and 1.5-GHz Xeon MP processors each have 512KB of Level 3 cache. The 1.4-GHz Xeon MP is priced at $1177, and the 1.5-GHz chip at $1980, in 1000-unit quantities. The 1.6-GHz Xeon MP has 1MB of Level 3 cache and is priced at $3692 in 1000-unit quantities.

Intel gave a roadmap of its Xeon plans at its recent developers' conference.

For Low-End Servers

Greater amounts of onboard memory get important data closer to the core of the chip, improving computational performance and permitting the processor to run more complicated programs, said Nathan Brookwood, a principal analyst for the Insight 64 technology market research firm.

The 32-bit Xeon MP chip doesn't compete against 64-bit processors like Intel's Itanium or others from Sun Microsystems, Compaq, or IBM, he said. But the Xeon isn't supposed to.

Intel "currently dominates the market for low-end entry-level servers that are using the Pentium III and Pentium III Xeon processors," he said. Other than the Tualatin design, companies using multiple processor servers for things like e-commerce transactions and Web activities haven't had a real technology advance, he said. "Even though the dot-com companies imploded, you have Internet traffic doubling every six months or so...the only thing that gets people buying again is new technology."

Intel is hinting at a multiprocessor server design for Xeon using 16 processors, an announcement that could be made in the next couple of weeks, Brookwood said.

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