Volume 2, Issue 2

 Downloadable Version (.pdf format)

February, 2003
In this edition:


NVIDIA has become a household name over the last few years due to their GeForce graphics cards. When the GeForce line was launched, it started the new age of full screen anti-aliased gaming. The GeForce wasn't just an evolution to its predecessors; it was a revolution. In the few years since the breakthrough of the GeForce, there have been many improvements to its Graphics Processor Unit but today, Nvidia is introducing the largest improvement to date.

 The release of the latest GeForce Chip, the NV30, now named GeForce FX will begin to change they way games are played, viewed, and developed. Nvidia is promising cinematic quality that should equal Pixar's Toy Story, in games. The GeForce FX will be coming out in two versions at first. The first models that will ship are the 5800 and the 5800Ultra. Here is a list of the hardware specs for the GeForce FX:

  • Produced on a 0.13µ process
  • Flip-chip design
  • 256 bit GPU
  • 125 million transistors
  • Eight Pixel Shaders
  • x Vertex Shaders
  • Clock speeds of at least 500 MHz
  • DDR-II memory starting at 500 MHz (1 GHz DDR)
  • 128 bit memory bus
  • Optimized memory interface with lossless Z-compression and color data compression
  • AGP 8X
  • FX Flow - proprietary copper heat pipe cooling solution

Listed below are specifications for both the 5800 and the 5800Ultra. The specs for the GeForce Ti 4800 and the Radeon 9700 Pro are also listed for comparison.

 

GeForce FX 5800 Ultra

GeForce FX 5800

GeForce4 Ti4800  

ATI Radeon 9700 Pro

Manufacturing process

0.13 micron

0.13 micron

0.15 micron 

0.15 micron

Chip technology

256-bit

256-bit

256-bit  

256-bit

Core clock speed

~500MHz

~400MHz

300MHz  

325MHz

Memory clock speed

500MHz (DDR2=1,000MHz)

400MHz (DDR2=800MHz)

325MHz (DDR=650MHz)  

310MHz (DDR=620MHz)

Memory Bus width

128-bit DDR2

128-bit DDR2

128-bit DDR  

256-bit DDR

Memory bandwidth

16GB/sec

12.8GB/sec

10.4GB/sec  

19.8GB/sec

Rendering Pixel pipelines

8

8

4

8

Texture units per pipeline

1

1

2

1

Textures per Texture unit

16

16

4

8

Theoretical fill rate

4+Gpixels/sec

3.2+Gpixels/sec

1.24Gpixels/sec  

2.5+Gpixels/sec

Vertex shader units

FP Array

FP Array

2

4

Anti Aliased Fill rate

16+ Billion AA samples/s

12.8+ AA samples/s

4.8 Billion AA samples/s  

15.6 Billion AA samples/s

Color bits per channel

10

10

8

10

AGP 4x/8X

Yes + DX9

Yes + DX9

Yes + DX8  

Yes + DX9

Memory type

128/256MB

128/256MB

128MB  

128/256MB

Max displays/Ramdacs

2/2

2/2

2/2

2/2

Descriptions of the specifications

8-pixels per clock cycle. The high graphics bandwidth facilitates the application of complex textures, lighting, and other effects to an entire scene, without limiting cinematic realism to a portion of the screen or to the main characters. Games and other desktop applications take on a film-like appearance, in real time.

NVIDIA Intellisample technology. The NVIDIA GeForce FX GPU is the first GPU to include both Z and color compression, automatically providing a boost to antialiasing. These advances in compression and antialiasing techniques ensure realistic color and smooth edges at all resolutions, without any loss in performance. Users will see the most fluid frame rates possible for a truly realistic experience.

DDR2 - Innovative interfaces to the latest 1GHz DDR2 memories. The next generation NVIDIA memory interface technology maximizes the bandwidth that can be achieved using the latest high-speed memory chips.

AGP 8X bus implementation. The newest specification of the AGP bus doubles the theoretical bandwidth between the graphics engine and the rest of the system, accelerating transfers to main memory and minimizing the overhead associated with storing and retrieving textures using main memory.

0.13-micron semiconductor fabrication, this allows very high clock speeds and a low heat factor. A higher clock frequency of course means higher framerate and performance. I think we can expect a core clock somewhere in 400-500 MHz !128-bit studio precision pixel processing throughout the entire graphics pipeline for uncompromised precision levels without visual artifacts.

Due to the GeForce FX's high clock speeds the chip and memory both run very hot, and the card consumes more power than the standard AGP bus can provide. The GeForce FX cards must be connected directly to a PC's power supply by means of a standard four-pin hard drive power cable. Some drastic measures are required to dissipate all the heat that the GeForce FX produces. NVIDIA’s FX Cooling system consists of what is called Flow Thermal Management that has a copper heat spreader and heat pipes that create an air flow system.  

The air is pulled from outside the case and is cooled as it passes over the heat pipe and circulates over the heat spreader then blown out of the case. The temperature of the GPU is monitored and adjustments are made to the amount of air flow as needed. The combination of the cooling and power features takes up enough space to occupy two PCI slots. It's not certain if lower clocked GeForce FX processors require either of these solutions, and it will be left to add-in manufacturers to determine the best cooling solution for their add-in cards

In conclusion the new version of the GeForce will raise the bar for gaming. Also change the appearance and how games are played. Nvidia once again will have a new revelation in the Video card industry.
 

DVD RECORDERS FOR THE PC

DVD Recording is the next logical step up from the popular CD burners that are in almost every computer system today. They offer vast amounts of storage per disc (up to 4.7GB per side), the capability to backup critical data over and over again just as easily as a tape drive, backwards compatibility with CDR/CDRW discs, and the ability to quickly and easily create your very own high-quality multimedia movies or presentations. These discs can then be read on almost any multi-read DVD-ROM player and can reliably store the data/video anywhere for 30-100 years.  Now this remarkable technology is going mainstream with the release of many new DVD-R (DVD-Recordable) and DVD-RW (DVD- Re-Writable) PC drives supporting various format at a reasonable price.  We will take a look here at the main DVD recording drives sold by ASI Corporation and the software that supports them.

PART 1 - DVD Recording: Formats & Media

DVD recording technology is still emerging market so there are three main competing disc formats with different features and support:

The DVD Forum Standards

DVD-R = Write Once DVD Format, 2.6 GB or 4.7 GB per side (single sided / single layer), typically 1x or 2x speeds.  Introduced in 1998 by Pioneer, and the general use format (650nm laser) was authorized by DVD Forum in 2000.  DVD-R offers a write-once, read-many storage format akin to CD-R and is used to master DVD-Video and DVD-ROM discs.

DVD-RW (ver 1.1) = Sequential read-write access (rewritable DVD). They can be re-written up to about 1,000 times. 1x speeds.

Note: For DVD-R/DVD-RW media 1x speed translates to 1385KBp/second (not the same as CDR speed which is 150KB/second).

The DVD+RW Alliance Standards

Introduced in the year 2001 by a group of OEM manufacturers such as Dell, HP, Phillips, Ricoh, and Sony that form the DVD+RW Alliance, this standard uses two types of media distinguished by the + symbol in the name.  It is supposed to offer greater compatibility and reliability over DVD-RW.  Some drives will only support this format, while some drives support on DVD-RW, while some newer drives can support both.

DVD+R =  Write-Once DVD standard supports capacity of 4.7GB per side.

DVD+RW = Random Read-Write Access (Rewritable), this standard also supports capacity of 4.7GB per side.

For more information see: http://www.dvdrw.com/faq.html

DVD-RAM (Cartridge) Format

The DVD-RAM (Cartridge) Format is supported by Panasonic, Hitachi Ltd., Toshiba Corp., and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd.  The two main types are:

DVD-RAM 1.0 = Random read-write access (rewritable DVD) – Disc Cartridge format (single or double-sided), 2.6 GB per side

DVD-RAM 2.0 = Random read-write access (rewritable DVD) – Disc Cartridge (single or double-sided), 4.7 GB per side.

DVD-RAM cartridges act much like DVD-RW except they can be re-written to many more times (100,000), and you must install a special driver in order to access them.  Once the driver is installed the cartridge can be accessed just like any removable drive using drag and drop or copy and paste.  You do not need special recording software, just the drivers and format utility.

Part 2 - DVD Recording Drives Sold By ASI

ASI SKU: 19632

Drive Model: Panasonic SW9571 “Multi-Drive” DVD-RW/ DVD-RAM / CDRW combo drive (bulk)

Specs: Write Data Transfer Rate: 4.7 GB DVD-RAM : 2,770 KB (with verifying), 2.6 GB DVD-RAM : 1,385 KB (with verifying), 4.7 GB DVD-R : 2,770 KB (without verifying), 4.7 GB DVD-RW : 1,385 KB (without verifying), CD-R : Max 1,800 KB (without verifying), CD-RW: Max 1,200 KB (without verifying)

More specifications: http://www.panasonic.com/industrial/computer/storage/dvdram/images/pdf/D511N_oem_012.pdf

Special Notes: This is a unique “multi-drive” that supports both standard DVD and CD type discs as well as the DVD-RAM cartridges.  Because of this it has a specially designed tray that accepts both kinds of media. Software Known to Work With: Roxio Easy CD Creator 5.3 Basic, Roxio DVD Edition, Video Wave 5.1.  Also comes with CD that has drivers for the DVD-RAM.

ASI SKU: 19049/17905 (bulk/retail)

Drive Model: Toshiba SDR5002 DVD-R/DVD-RW/CD-R/CD-RW combo drive (bulk)

Specs: 2X DVD-R Read/Write, 1X DVD-RW Read/Write, 12X DVD-ROM Read, 16X CD-R Read/Write, 10X CD-RW Read/Write, 40X CD-ROM Read

See this page for more: http://www.toshiba.com/taissdd/products/features/SDR5002-Over.shtml

Software Known to Work With: Roxio 5.3 Basic or Roxio DVD Edition.

ASI SKU: 17375

Drive Model: Asus DVD-104 DVD-R/DVD-RW/CDRW combo drive (retail)

Specs: Please see - http://www.asus.com/optical/dvr-104/specification.htm

Software Known to Work With: Nero 5.5.9+, did NOT work with Roxio 5.3 in our testing.

ASI SKU: 18453

Drive Model: Sony DWU10A-10 DVD+RW/DVD-RW/CDRW Dual Format + combo drive (bulk)

Specs: One of the first drives to support both the DVD+RW and DVD– RW formats.

Software Known to Work With: NA

ASI SKU: 19623

Drive Model: Teac DVW50E002 4x DVD-R/DVD-RW/CDRW Combo drive

Specs: 4X DVD-R, 2X DVD-RW, 16X writing, 8X re-writing, 32X reading (CD) and 12X reading (DVD).  More info: http://www.teac.co.jp/dspd/product/optical/dv-w50e.html

Software Known to Work With: Retail version comes bundled with Pinnacle Studio VER 8 which is a full video capture/editing/and burning software so it is known to work with that but it will not burn other data files.  As for other software it is still undergoing testing, we had problems recording with Roxio 5.3.  We will issue an update when further testing is completed.

Part 3 - Recording and Authoring Software

There are two basic types of software you can use with a DVD “burner” drive: Recording software or Authoring software.  Recording software allows you to burn data files to one of the supported blank media discs, whether CDR/W or DVDR/W type.  Examples of such software are Roxio Easy CD Creator Basic/Platinum and Nero Burning ROM.  DVD Authoring software actually allows you to capture/edit video (usually in MPEG or AVI format) and then create a VCD or DVD movie and burn it directly to a blank disc.  This disc could be played back like a DVD movie on most players or software (like WIN DVD).  DVD Authoring software even allows you to create customer menus, add special FX, add text, etc. Examples are MGI/Roxio Video Wave 5.1, Roxio DVD Edition, Cyberlink Power Director, and many more on the market.

As for software sold by ASI, we have tested a number of drive/software combinations and have had trouble making them all work perfectly.  This is a new technology without seeming widespread software compatibility yet.  Also note that DVD burner drives will take longer to recognize blank or data discs when they are first inserted, so you need to be patient. If you purchase a retail drive please use the recording software that comes with the drives and if necessary go to the website of that software maker and download any update patches they may have.  If you buy a BULK or BARE DVD Recording drives without software you should purchase Roxio 5.3 Basic or Roxio 5.3 DVD Edition since they have worked with all the drives in our testing except for one.

SKU # 16709 = NTI CD MAKER 5.1.32 – Supports most CDRW and DVD-RW drives.  Web: http://www.ntius.com/ .

SKU # 18927 = Roxio 5.3.3 Basic – Latest version of the popular recording software. This should support virtually all CDRW/DVDRW drives for burning data. www.roxio.com

SKU # 19450 = Roxio DVD Edition - Same as Roxio 5.3 Basic expect adds the “DVD Builder” Program that allows you to edit and create DVD menus/movie.  www.roxio.com

SKU # 18928 = MGI/Roxio Video Wave 5.1 -  DVD Authoring Software that can also burn videos directly to CDR/CDRW/DVDR/DVDRW discs using built in Roxio Engine. http://www.mgisoft.com/products/videowave5/features.html


Intel Barebone Servers Integrated by ASI


While most distributors sell the Intel SR1300 and SR2300 series server components, ASI takes it one step further by pre-assembling them for our customers. We build the systems and load all necessary updates for you in order to save you valuable time and money. Assembling the systems and updating all components with the latest BIOS and Firmware drivers can take as long as 2 hours, ASI does all of this for you. as a value added service, and we do it at no additional cost to you. For the cost of the components alone, you are getting a fully built and updated system.

Procedures

 1. ASI production pulls all parts needed for assembly.

 2. This, of course, includes the latest available Intel components such as the E7501WV2 Server Motherboard

 3. Assembly starts with the motherboard being mounted in the chassis.

 4. The Backplane is added next.

 5. Followed by Fans, Cables, Fans, and Hard Drive Carriers are then added.

 6. The Barebones Server is now completed and ready for updates to the BIOS, and Firmware.


After System assembly the following updates are made to the hardware:
 

  • Motherboard BIOS
  • BMC (Baseboard Management Controller)
  • FRU/SDR (Field Replaceable Unit - Sensor Data Records)
  • HSC (HotSwap Controller)

These quality barebones servers are available from ASI in the following configurations, under the noted SKU#'s:
 
SKU Type Motherboard Chassis Features Options
 19462  1U  SE7501WV2  SR1300  U320 SCSI, XEON 533, Dual GbE, VGA  
 19463  1U  SE7501WV2  SR1300  ATA, XEON 533, Dual GbE, VGA  
 19249  2U  SE7501WV2  SR2300  U320 SCSI, XEON 533, 1 x GbE, 1 x 10/100, VGA  Redundant Power
 (SKU# 17058)

HARD DRIVE PARTITIONING LIMITATIONS

Understanding Partition Size Limitations

PC Hard Disk Capacities have constantly improved for the last 20 years, nearly as fast as CPU and memory advances. These rapid changes can cause problems, especially as related to the size of hard disks and if partitioning and formatting utilities see the correct storage capacity of a hard disk. To understand these problems you need a little background on how past and present hard drive technology works.

Hard disks used to be very small by today’s standards.  As there capacity grew the controllers could no longer directly access the full size of the drives due to limited address register size, so “translation” methods were developed to make the software see the correct size.  Some of this is done at the hardware level, and other methods use firmware (BIOS) or software.  Various translation methods have worked well at certain stages of hard drive technology (like BIOS Extenders), but as disks with larger capacities and more sectors come onto the market, new size barriers are hit.  These barriers can lead to drive space being wasted or the drive needing to be split into many smaller partitions.

The primary barriers are 528MB, 2.1 GB, 4 GB, 8 GB, 32 GB, 64 GB, 137 GB, and 180 GB.  The barriers have four causes: FDISK limitations, File System limitations, Operating System limitations, and IDE Controller/BIOS limitations.  When you run into these barriers either you will see an incorrect total drive size reported, or you will see the correct size but not be able to create a single full-sized partition.  You should be aware of these limitations before thinking your hardware is bad. Many times there is a workaround or upgrade that will get the job done. Let us take a closer look.

[1] FDISK Barriers

FDISK (Fixed Disk) is a DOS based utility for creating / deleting partitions.  There have been several versions of FDISK over the years.  The earliest versions only supported FAT16.  With Windows 95 OSR2 a new version was released to support FAT32 and “Large Disk Support.”  This version will show the following warning when starting:

IMPORTANT: If you enable large disk support and create any new drives on this disk, you will not be able to access the new drive(s) using other operating systems, including some versions of Windows 95 and Windows NT, as well as earlier versions of Windows and MS-DOS. In addition, disk utilities that were not designed explicitly for the FAT-32 file system will not be able to work with this disk. If you need access to this disk with other operating systems or older disk utilities, do not enable large drive support.

Do you wish to enable large disk support (Y/N)…………..? [Y]

Answering YES to large disk support enables FAT32.  Answering NO [N] goes back to FAT16.  This new version continued through Windows 98SE and worked great until drives larger than 64 GB hit the market. According to Microsoft Knowledge Base Article Q263044:

“When you use Fdisk.exe to partition a hard disk that is larger than 64 GB (64 gigabytes, or 68,719,476,736 bytes) in size, Fdisk does not report the correct size of the hard disk.  The size that Fdisk reports is the full size of the hard disk minus 64 GB”

Reference: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;en-us;q263044

Microsoft eventually released a new FDISK version in MAY 2000 that overcame this barrier. However, in time even this new version ran into a barrier.  It is limited to 127GB and will see drives larger than that incorrectly, regardless whether your motherboard supports 48-Bit LBA mode.  When trying to use FDISK with a drive this size it will report a much smaller incorrect capacity.  On our testing of a Western Digital 200 GB drive, FDISK reported 19078 MB (19 GB).  

[2] IDE Controller/BIOS Barriers

Also important to note are the partition size limitations imposed by the IDE controller itself.  In fact these are some of the most common limitations people will run into when building or upgrading systems.

To go back in history a little most computer systems built before August 1994 do not support hard drives larger than 528 MB, unless you update the system BIOS, install a PCI IDE controller card with onboard BIOS, or install third-party software.  There is an 8.4 GB hard drive limitation on some traditional system BIOS. The following is required to access the full capacity of an 8.4 GB or larger hard drive:

  • Operating systems that recognize Extended BIOS functions:
  • Windows 95 or Higher

This is not much of an issue anymore with current drives.  However a new "BIOS Barrier" have arisen due to the rapid increase in drive sizes. This is the 137GB LBA limitation barrier.  LBA is a method used for many years to create logical block addressing for large drives.  To support the full size of a drive larger than 137 GB the motherboard requires 48-bit LBA.  In most cases a BIOS update will fix this problem (check the manufacturer’s website), all current generation models will already have 48-bit LBA built in.  Still it is something to be aware of when upgrading older systems.

[3] File System Limitations

FAT is the File Allocation Table and determines how files are stored and retrieved on a hard disk.  MS-DOS used FAT16 (16-bit) and floppies used FAT-12.

FAT16 is limited to maximum partition size of 2.1 GB under MS-DOS (versions of DOS before 3.3 only supported 32 Megabytes!).

Windows NT 4.0 has a maximum partition size of 4 GB during installation, but can use larger partitions after you install the Service Packs and use the NTFS file system. Windows NT 4.0 supports NTFS (version 4).

In late 1996 Microsoft release Windows 95 OSR2 that supported FAT32 - a new and improved FAT.  Subsequently Windows 98 and WIN98 SE also supported FAT32.  The practical limitation of FAT32 is 32GB.  FAT32 partitions can be larger than 32GB but it is not considered efficient to due to the “disk slack” that occurs.

Windows 2000 has a maximum FAT32 partition size of 32 GB (during the setup) and it is recommended to use NTFS (version 5) with larger drives. Windows XP also supports NTFS version 5 and is backwards compatible with FAT32. NTFS 5 has many advantages over FAT file systems, for example NTFS 5 supports local file and folder encryption, compression, security, dynamic volumes, as well as disk volume quotas.  NTFS does not really have a "size limitation, but the operating systems that use it do (see part4 below).

[4] Operating System / Windows Limitations

 Windows 95 does not support hard drives larger than 32 GB.  There is no fix except upgrading to a newer version of Windows.  

“Hard disks and other media larger than 32 GB in size were not available at the time Windows 95 and subsequent Windows 95 OEM Service Releases were developed. The changes required to support media larger than 32 GB in Windows 95 would require architectural changes that cannot be supported on these platforms.”

Reference: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;246818

 ** Windows 2000 and XP will have another limitation for drives above 180 GB.  You will need to create a less than total size partition during installation.  After installation you can install a Service Pack Update [SP1 for XP / SP3 for Win2000], then reboot, then create a second partition using Disk Management utility.  We have tested a Western Digital 200GB drive (Model 2000JB) with Windows XP.  Here are the test results of the hard drive size as measured at different configuration points: 

  1. Total reported capacity of drive as seen by motherboard BIOS = 200050 MB (200 GB)
  2. Total reported capacity of drive as seen by FDISK (May 2000 version) = 19078 MB (incorrect – do not use FDISK)
  3. Total reported capacity of drive seen during text-based part of WIN XP setup = 131069 MB (131 GB) = Not full-size
  4. Total reported capacity of drive after installation = 127.99 GB (128 GB) = Not full-size
  5. Total reported capacity of drive as after installing WIN XP Service Pack 1 = 186.31 GB (with 127.99 GB system partition + 58.32 GB Unallocated Space as seen in Disk Management Utility = 186.31 GB).  This is the most you can get.

As you can see this latest of limitations is something you must deal with in a very specific way.

 
New Chipsets
Chipsets Comparison Chart - SiS
  SiS655 SiS755 SiSR658
North Bridge SiS655 SiS755 SiSR658
Processor bus 400/533MHz. 800MHz. 400/533MHz.
Processor interface Intel Pentium 4 Socket 478 AMD Athlon 64 Socket 754 Intel Pentium 4 Socket 478
Memory type Dual Channel DDR 266/333 Dual Channel DDR 266/333 Dual Channel RDRAM
Max. memory size 4 DIMMS / 4GB 2 DIMMS Unbuffered
4 DIMMS Registered
/ 4GB		 4 RIMMS / 4GB
AGP Speed AGP 8x AGP 8x AGP 8x
Inter-Bridge bus MuTIOL 1GB/s
16 Bit @ 533MHz.		 MuTIOL 1GB/s
16 Bit @ 533MHz.		 MuTIOL 1GB/s
16 Bit @ 533MHz.
South Bridge SiS 963 SiS963L SiS963
Support PCI Slot 6 6 6
IDE Speed ATA 100/133 ATA 100/133 ATA 100/133
Integrated Graphics No No No
AC'97 AC' 97 6 Channel AC' 97 6 Channel AC' 97 6 Channel
CNR/ACR/AMR support Yes Yes Yes
10/100Mbit LAN      
USB ports 6 x USB 2.0 6 x USB 2.0  
Other Features      

 

Chipsets Comparison Chart - VIA
  VIA P4X400 VIA KT400
North Bridge VIA P4X400 VT8377
Processor bus 400/533MHz. 200 / 266 / 333MHz.
Processor interface Intel Pentium 4 Socket 478 AMD Athlon XP / Duron Socket 462
Memory type DDR 200 / 266 / 333 DDR 200 / 266 / 333
Max. memory size 4 DIMMS / 4GB 4 DIMMS / 4GB
AGP Speed AGP 8x AGP 8x
Inter-Bridge bus VIA V-Link@ 533MB/s VIA V-Link@ 533MB/s
South Bridge VT8235 VT8235
Support PCI Slot 5 5
IDE Speed ATA 100/133 ATA 100/133
Integrated Graphics No No
AC'97 AC'97 6 Channel AC'97 6 Channel
CNR/ACR/AMR support Yes Yes
10/100Mbit LAN VIA 10/100 Ethernet MAC VIA 10/100 Ethernet MAC
USB ports 6 X USB 2.0 6 X USB 2.0
Other Features    

Intel Workstation and Server Chipsets


What is the difference between Workstation and Server Products? The easiest way to find out it to look where they both start... the chipsets!

Intel's latest offering for the Workstation market, the E7505, is the next step in Intel's workstation chipset technology. It is optimized for the Intel XEON processor running at 533MHz. FSB, and utilizes faster memory speed and supports the next generation AGP8X graphics for enhanced video bandwidth. All of this together presents a comprehensive package for anyone looking to build an advanced workstation.

For the Server Market, Intel has recently introduced the E7501 chipset. This is more of an upgrade from their previous E7500 chipset with the addition of supporting the new 533MHz. FSB XEON processors and DDR266 memory which increases the memory bandwidth to 4.3GB/s, up from the previous max amount of 3.2GB/s.

The main differences that you will find when looking at Workstation products vs Server products is their usage. Workstations are mainly used for engineering, high end graphic editing, and other labor intensive tasks which require powerful graphics, and fast processing speed. Servers are also required to have fast processing ability, but the I/O transfer ability of the server is much more important than it's graphics ability. Servers are usually required to be fully redundant; power, hard drives (RAID arrays), network connections... all of these things are needed to ensure that the machine is always up and running, no matter what component fails. While workstations also utilize RAID, it is more often used in the striping configuration (RAID level 0), in order to speed up read / write operations to the system. The processing is done on the workstation while the results of that processing are stored on the server to ensure protection of the data.

The chart below illustrates how similar the Workstation and Server chipsets are.


 HOST
E7505 Chipset
E7501 Chipset
Target Segment Workstation Server
Processor Intel® Xeon™ processor with 533 MHz System Bus and 512K L2 Cache Intel® Xeon™ processor with 533 MHz System Bus and 512K L2 Cache
Number Processors 1-2 1-2
System Bus 400/533MHz (data) 400/533MHz (data)
MEMORY CONTROLLER HUB E7505 Chipset E7501 Chipset
Type E7505 MCH E7501 MCH