Intel announced today the shipment of the industrys first 1GHz processors for servers, and high-end workstations. OEMs are reported as starting shipment of 1GHz Xeons this quarter. The new Xeons use Intels 0.18-micron fabrication process, a 133MHz FSB, and have 256KB of full speed on-die cache, like their standard PIII brethren, as well as using the existing SC330 cartridge and internal voltage management for full retro-compatibility.

In Intels news release they push the theory that the full-speed on-die cache will increase the CPUs performance up to 15% over previous Xeons. With the enterprise/server market running, and launching, multiple applications for multiple users we feel the 256KB full-speed vs. up to 2MB bus speed may weigh heavily on the professional buyers mind.

Nay Sayers state that the move to 1GHz for Xeon is a waste since the bottlenecks from RAM and storage media still exist. With the advances in RAM technology and Serial ATA on the Near horizon these performance limitations will soon be less of a factor.