CNET News.com: Workstations see most benefit from Xeon

"Intel's new Pentium III Xeon chip is a boon to computer companies' efforts to make feistier workstations, but server makers say the larger benefits of the upgrade won't come until later."

"The new chip, which runs at 500 MHz and soon at 550 MHz, is faster than the Pentium II Xeon predecessor and adds 70 new instructions..."

"One server task that benefits from the new instructions is video streaming. Real Networks, for instance, saw a 10 percent gain when a system was updated to support the new instructions, said Erik Zimmerman Herz of Real Networks. At the Xeon rollout yesterday in San Francisco, HP and Real Networks demonstrated video delivery from a Red Hat Linux server."

"Though the operating system had to be updated to take advantage of the new instructions, it took Red Hat developer Doug Ledford just three days to write the patch after Real Networks put in the request, said Red Hat's Howard Jacobson. The patch is now downloadable, he added."

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