A bug in Intel Corp’s 450NX support chipset for the new Pentium II Xeon processors Intel is planning to announce on June 29 could hold up the launch of the next generation of servers based on the part, according to a report in PC Week. Intel began notifying OEMs of the bug late last week, says the article. The 450NX gives Xeon servers the capacity to scale beyond four processors, supports intelligent I/O and multiple PCI channels and up to 8Gb of RAM. Current Pentium II-based systems have been restricted to dual processors, although some companies have added proprietary technology from firms such as Reliance Computer Corp and struggling Axil Computer Inc to produce servers with four or more chips. Intel wouldn’t comment directly on the story because the Xeon has yet to be launched, but said that it anticipated broad industry support from OEMs that will be announcing both server and workstation products at the event, which is being held at its Santa Clara, California-based headquarters. We continue to expect server vendors to announce systems during the course of the summer, the company said. But PC Week says the first servers using the 450NX are now unlikely to show up until late in the summer.
