Pentium II Xeon

The Xeon CPU is not significantly different from the current Pentium II line because it uses the same P6 core and 100-Mhz input/output bus. But the Xeon does have a larger cache -- up to 2 megabytes of Level 2 cache -- which runs at the same clock speed as the CPU. Current Pentium II chips have 512K of cache, which run at half the clock speed of the CPU. The Celeron, designed for inexpensive home PCs, has no L2 cache. Unlike the Pentium II, the Xeon uses a new type of connector - similar to Slot 1, called Slot 2, which is much bigger.  The Xeon also uses a new chipset - the 450NX (or the 440GX for workstations), which allows for the handling of up to 8GB of RAM, and for other advanced features of the Xeon.

Until the Xeon, the Pentium Pro was the only (sixth generation) Intel x86 CPU that could be used in a system that required more than two processors (the Pentium II was only capable of dual processing), which was why the Pentium Pro was still commonly seen in servers.  The Xeon will finally drive the last nail in the coffin for the aging Pentium Pro, because of it's ability to be used in quad setups and beyond.

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