SANTA CLARA, CA -- Intel Corporation today introduced the world's fastest processor for dual processor, high-performance workstations. The 2 Gigahertz Intel(R) Xeon(TM) processor, based on the NetBurst(TM) microarchitecture, targets high-performance and mid-range workstation market segments and is expected to achieve performance increases of more than 10 percent over existing Intel Xeon processors. A number of workstation manufacturers worldwide -- including Compaq, Dell, Fujitsu-Siemens, Hewlett Packard, IBM and NEC -- are expected to start shipping platforms based on the new processor this quarter -- many starting today. According to industry analyst firm International Data Corporation, Intel-based workstations accounted for 68 percent of all workstation shipments in the second quarter of 2001. The Intel NetBurst Microarchitecture and Intel 860 Chipset Intel's Xeon processor family is specially designed to meet the scalability, availability and manageability needs of the high-performance workstation market segment. Workstations based on Intel's new Xeon processors use the Intel NetBurst microarchitecture to deliver processing power for video, audio, 3-D graphics and the latest Internet technologies. The Intel Xeon processor platform is based on the high-performance Intel(R) 860 Chipset. This chipset features dual RDRAM* memory banks to complement the Intel Xeon's 400 MHz system bus, which provides up to 3.2 gigabytes of data per second. In the future, faster clock speeds and larger cache configurations will provide further headroom for computation, graphical and I/O-intensive workloads. The Intel Xeon processor at 2 GHz with 256 KB level two Advanced Transfer Cache is priced at $615 in 1,000-unit quantities.