Intel Projects Record-Setting Intel® Itanium® 2 Processor Performance On Key Enterprise, Technical Applications

INTEL DEVELOPER FORUM, MUNICH, Germany, May 29, 2002 - Intel Corporation today revealed performance estimates for its forthcoming Intel® Itanium® 2 processor that address the most demanding aspects of enterprise computing. With higher data speeds and microarchitectural enhancements, servers and workstations based on the Itanium 2 processor are expected to deliver up to 1.5 to two times the performance of today's Itanium-based systems, significantly extending the product line's performance over RISC-based systems on key enterprise-class applications.

"With Itanium 2-based systems, Intel will deliver on the promise of the Itanium architecture with industry-leading performance on a broad range of demanding enterprise computing and technical applications," said Mike Fister, senior vice president and general manager for Intel's Enterprise Platforms Group. "As system availability begins mid-year and grows throughout 2002, IT and line of business users will be able to deploy high-performance, standards-based technology for their most data-intensive, business-critical applications."

The Itanium 2 processor, formerly code-named "McKinley," will be the second in a family of enterprise-class processors from Intel that brings the performance and volume economics of the Intel Architecture to the most demanding segments of computing. The Itanium processor family enables a broad choice of reliable and scalable platforms and software for high-end servers and workstations at significantly lower costs and greater performance than proprietary offerings.

Based on tests of Itanium 2-based prototype systems, Intel projects that the Itanium 2 processor will deliver outstanding performance on the following applications:

• Enterprise resource planning: Intel projects that a four-processor Itanium 2-based system will support more than twice the number of sales and distribution transactions as a comparable Itanium-based system.
• Large database and transaction processing: Intel estimates that a four-processor Itanium 2-based system will support about 50 percent more transactions per minute than a comparable Sun UltraSparc* III system.
• Secure e-Commerce: Testing by Coradiant* Research, a performance management consulting group, revealed that a prototype two-processor Itanium 2-based server performed 1440 secure transactions per second, or 720 transactions per processor, on Coradiant's secure Web transaction workload benchmark. In contrast, a four-processor Itanium-based system performed 1376 transactions per second, or 344 transactions per processor, and an eight-processor UltraSparc III system performed 552 transactions per second, or 69 transactions per processor - less than one tenth the performance, per processor, of the Itanium 2-based server.
• High-performance scientific and technical computing: On the MP Linpack* 10K benchmark, four-processor Itanium 2-based systems are expected to achieve supercomputing-class performance of more than 13 gigaflops (billion floating-point operations per second), almost doubling the performance of a comparable UltraSparc III system.
• Mechanical computer-aided design: For MSC.Nastran*, Intel anticipates that a single-processor Itanium 2-based system will perform 90 percent higher than a comparable Itanium-based system and two to four times as fast as a comparable UltraSparc III system.

Intel also expects the Itanium 2 processor to deliver exceptional processor and system performance:

• Memory bandwidth: Single-processor Itanium 2-based systems using the Intel E8870 chipset are expected to deliver 3.7 GB/s on the Stream* benchmark, which is more than 2.5 times that of a comparable Itanium-based system and more than four times the performance of a comparable UltraSparc III system at 0.891 GB/s.
• Floating point: On the SPECfp2000* benchmark, single-processor Itanium 2-based systems are expected to achieve industry-leading performance with a base result of 1350, almost doubling the base result of 701 on comparable Itanium-based systems.
• Integer: Intel estimates that on the SPECint2000* benchmark, single-processor Itanium 2-based systems will have a base result of 700 or higher, approximately twice that of the Itanium processor. Other published SPECint2000 results can be found on www.spec.org.

The Intel Itanium 2 processor's outstanding performance is achieved through microarchitectural enhancements - including 3 MB of on-die level 3 (L3) cache and additional execution units and issue ports - and improved data speeds, including a three-fold increase in system bus bandwidth, 1GHz frequency and improved cache latencies. The Itanium architecture also maintains generation-to-generation software compatibility, enabling software compiled for the Itanium processor to run on the Itanium 2 processor with significant performance increases.

For more information about enterprise performance and benchmarks, visit www.intel.com/pressroom/archive/backgrnd/itanium2.htm.

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Intel, the world's largest chip maker, is also a leading manufacturer of computer, networking and communications products. Additional information about Intel is available at www.intel.com/pressroom

* Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others. Intel and Itanium are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and in other countries.

All Itanium® 2 projections are Intel estimates on Production Itanium® 2 system at 1GHz with integrated 3MB L3 cache. 2GB DDRAM, Microsoft .NET* Beta OS or Windows* 2000 64-bit Beta OS for most benchmarks. 32GB for OLTP, 16GB for ERP and CAE. Single processor for SPEC CPU2000, STREAM and CAE. 4 processors for OLTP, ERP and Linpack 10K.

Enterprise resource management: Itanium® 2 processor numbers are forecasted production targets based on measurements of Itanium 2-based prototype systems using enterprise resource planning workload testing at Intel.

Large database and transaction processing: All projections based on Intel estimates for Sun UltraSPARC III 1050MHz. Itanium® 2 processor forecasted production target based on measurements of Itanium 2-based prototype systems using online transaction processing (OLTP) workload testing at Intel.

Memory bandwidth: Source for Sun UltraSPARC III results: www.cs.virginia.edu/stream. Triad performance. Single CPU, 750 MHz. Source Intel: Itanium 2 processor forecasted production estimate based on measurements of Itanium 2-based prototype systems; 1GHz 3MB L3, Triad Performance. Single CPU.

Secure e-Commerce: Source: Coradiant Research on prototype 2P Intel Itanium 2 processor 1GHz based server, 4GB, Linux 2.4.9-18smp. Sun UltraSPARC III 750MHz 8P based server, 16GB, SunOS 5.8. Itanium 2 system loaded with apache 1.3.22, RSA Security's BSAFE SSL-C library, mod_ssl 2.8.5-1.3.22.

High-performance scientific and technical computing: All projections based on Intel estimates for Sun UltraSPARC III 1050MHz. Itanium® 2 forecasted production targets based on measurements of Itanium 2-based prototype systems using Linpack 10K benchmark on 4 processors systems.

Mechanical Computer-Aided Design: Source:
www.mscsoftware.com/support/prod_support/nastran/performance/v01_sngl.cfm. SUN UltraSPARC III 900 MHz, Solaris 8. Intel estimates based on measurements of Itanium 2-based prototype systems: 1 GHz 3M Cache; 16GB RAM, Microsoft Windows .NET build 3590).

CPU floating point and integer performance: For additional published results: www.spec.org; Itanium� 2 Processor numbers are forecasted target on production systems based on measurements of Itanium 2-based prototype systems.

Performance tests and ratings are measured using specific computer systems and/or components and reflect the approximate performance of Intel products as measured by those tests. Any difference in system hardware or software design or configuration may affect actual performance. Buyers should consult other sources of information to evaluate the performance of systems or components they are considering purchasing.