Xeon Pro question

[ChrisLudwig]

I recently had a meeting with HP’s sales team about their server platform. (Compaq stuff re-branded). The sales guys struck me as being fools, and I just wanted to verify that fact with the resident experts in this forum.

According to these guys:

1. All Xeon CPUs above 1.4GHz have hyper-threading built in.
2. All Xeon CPUs above 500MHz can run in 3-CPU configurations, not just duals or quads.

Is this the BS I think believe it is?

Thanks,


Chris


Please visit: <A HREF="http://www.is2k.com" target="_new">http://www.is2k.com</A>

 

[slvr_phoenix]

1. All Xeon CPUs above 1.4GHz have hyper-threading built in.

Most definately. Any Xeon based on the Pentium 4 architecture comes with HT built in automatically, and to my knowldge, no Xeon based on the P3 core had a speed higher than 1.4GHz. So it's true, all Xeons above 1.4GHz have HT.

(Actually, all standard P4s had it built in and disabled by default too, but that's another story.)

2. All Xeon CPUs above 500MHz can run in 3-CPU configurations, not just duals or quads.

I've never heard of this one one way or the other. I don't see why not though. The real question is: If you're going past a simple dualie system why would you want only a 3 CPU configuration instead of a 4 CPU configuration?

As often as <i>most</i> (not all though, because some are actually good) computer salesmen usually have only a half of a clue, I think this time they weren't the fools that we'd expect.

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[jclw]

<A HREF="http://support.intel.com/support/processors/xeon/diff.htm" target="_new">This should answer your questions</A>.

*Dual PIII-800 @900 i440BX and Tualeron 1.2 @1.74 i815*

 

[old_fart]

An answer closer to the correct one is:

I'm pretty sure:
XEONs based on Willamette do NOT have HT enabled

XEONs based on NW have HT enabled

Only XEON MPs (1.4 GHz and above) can run more than 2 physical processers and I'm sure they can be set up with 3 CPUs. The MPs also include an L3 cache the other XEONs do not have.

XEON MPs based on P-II and P-III can also be run 3-way

These two locations provide more information:
> ftp://download.intel.com/design/Xeon/datashts/24966502.pdf
>
> ftp://download.intel.com/design/Xeon/specupdt/29074110.pdf
>
Sorry, I don't remember how to make the links work

I wouldn't call the HP guys "fools" After all, you didn't know the answer either... and they have a lot of stuff to try to remember. Most sales people don't know all the technical details. (NO... I'm not in sales)


Opinions expressed are mine and do not in any way represent the opinions or positions of my employer