Intel Xeon Hits 2 GHz

OK, this probably isn't much of a story, seeing as how the P4 hit the 2 GHz mark back in August and the Xeon is based on the same core. But Intel tells us, so I'll tell you, that the company just introduced the 2 GHz Xeon processor, based on the NetBurst microarchitecture, for the workstation market. Intel says that the new hotrod Xeon is expected to be more than 10 percent faster than the Xeons that are currently on the street. Compaq, Dell, Fujitsu-Siemens, Hewlett Packard, IBM and NEC should start shipping machines based on the new processor this quarter. The Xeon processor platform is based on the Intel 860 chipset for RDRAM and provides a 400 MHz system bus along with claims of 3.2 GB of data per second. The Intel Xeon processor at 2 GHz with 256 kB level two Advanced Transfer Cache is priced at $615 in 1,000-unit quantities.