(IDG) -- Not too long ago, workstation might as well have been a synonym for UNIX. The typical unit was an expensive black box that only the geekiest nerd would consider owning. But not anymore. Intel's new Pentium II Xeon chip--in tandem with Microsoft's NT operating system--brings ultra-high-end performance within reach of small businesses, work-at-home professionals, and large offices that need to buy many powerful systems.

These days, $7000 will buy you a workstation robustly configured with a pair of 400-MHz Pentium II Xeons and a high-end graphics card. With this ordnance in hand, you'll be able to attack Photoshop or mechanical design jobs that would slow a conventional PC to a crawl--or force you to buy an expensive UNIX box from Sun Microsystems or Silicon Graphics. If you design Web pages for a living, create interactive presentations, or work with massive quantities of financial data, one of these Xeons could be the solution you've been looking for.

Dell and Hewlett-Packard already market Xeon workstations, and within just a few months you can expect to see similar offerings from other vendors, including Compaq, IBM, and Intergraph. Prices for dual-processor Xeon systems range from $5000 for machines with 512KB of secondary cache to more than $12,000 for systems with 1MB of secondary cache and a high-end graphics card.

Not everyone needs a dual-processor workstation, however. Even if you can afford the freight, buying a Xeon workstation to run standard office applications is an invitation to disappointment. In fact, a $6824 256MB Dell Precision 610 workstation with two Xeon-400 CPUs (with 512KB of secondary cache each) did no better on PC WorldBench 98--which tests performance on conventional business applications--than a $2220 64MB PII-400 Dell OptiPlex GXi. When we tested the systems with demanding workstation apps like AutoCad and LightWave, however, the workstation clearly outclassed the PC.

MORE COMPUTING INTELLIGENCE

IDG.net home page

PC World home page

FileWorld find free software fast

Make your PC work harder with these tips

Reviews & in-depth info at IDG.net

IDG.net's desktop PC page
IDG.net's portable PC page

IDG.net's Windows software page

IDG.net's personal news page

Questions about computers? Let IDG.net's editors help you

Subscribe to IDG.net's free daily newsletter for computer geniuses (& dummies too)

Search IDG.net in 12 languages

News Radio

Fusion audio primers

Computerworld Minute

Workstation ABCs

Xeon -- Intel's replacement for the Pentium Pro -- is a new version of the PII designed for servers and workstations. Launched in late June, the Xeon is now available at 400 MHz, with a 450-MHz version due out by year's end.

Xeons are essentially turbocharged Pentium IIs with a dedicated bus, located between the main processor and the secondary cache chip(s), that runs at the same speed as the processor. The corresponding bus in a standard Pentium II cartridge runs at half the speed of the processor. The largest secondary cache offered in a PII cartridge is 512KB, but Xeons will be available with secondary caches of up to 2MB later this year.

A chip set called the 440GX handles Xeon workstations. The similar 450NX chip set supports up to four Xeon CPUs and is designed for servers. A bug discovered shortly before the Xeon was launched affected servers only, not workstations.

You won't see the Xeon in a desktop PC any time soon. Like the Pentium II, the Xeon occupies a single-edge contact cartridge. But unlike the PII, its cartridge fits only in Slot 2 motherboards and requires a special chip set.

What's a workstation?

The line separating the PC from the workstation gets blurrier all the time. But Intel-based workstations do share several distinguishing features, including high-end processors (usually a pair), large amounts of RAM (ranging from 128MB to 512MB in most cases), high-speed SCSI drives, and high-end 3D graphics cards that typically cost at least $1200. Another (rather circular) definition: Workstations run workstation apps.

Many workstation applications are multithreaded, divvying up the computing chores between two processors. That goes for the operating system as well, so these systems run Windows NT 4 Workstation, not Windows 98. Few multithreaded apps run well on standard desktops, though Adobe Photoshop and QuarkXpress are exceptions.

We tested two new workstations from Dell. The Precision 410 ($4575) sported dual Pentium II-400 processors, 256MB of RAM, and an 8MB Diamond Fire GL 1000 Pro graphics card. The Precision 610 ($6824) had dual PII Xeon-400 CPUs, 256MB of RAM, and a 16MB Intergraph Intense 3D Pro 3410-T graphics card. Our baseline PC was a Dell OptiPlex GX1 ($2220) with one Pentium II-400, 64MB of RAM, and 8MB of integrated ATI Rage Pro Turbo graphics.

All three of these systems delivered similar PC WorldBench 98 results, because Office-type applications are not robust enough to use the workstation's extra power.

But when we tested performance with LightWave, the superiority of the workstations was obvious to us. LightWave is a multithreaded, processor-intensive application, and one CPU does not have enough horsepower to run it well. In the duel of dual-CPUs, the Xeon workstation outperformed the dual Pentium II by just 4.9 percent. However, the Xeon system convincingly dusted the conventional workstation when we ran Indy 3D and ViewPerf, two industry-standard workstation benchmark suites. That's because those tests stress the graphics subsystem, and the Xeon's was much more robust - -not to mention expensive.

Time to buy?

FG Squared Multimedia, an Austin, Texas, company that creates multimedia presentations and 3D animation, has moved from desktop PCs to dual-processor workstations and expects to buy Xeons in the near future. Why? Productivity, says Casey Gum, the company's technical director. He says a typical "blurring" operation on a 50MB Photoshop file takes 3 minutes on a conventional PC, but only about 20 seconds on a PII workstation.

So if you spend most of your day in front of a computer struggling to run graphics-intensive applications, it may be time to move up. But, if what you really need is a fast PC to run Office, a workstation isn't for you.

Do you need a workstation?

If your check marks are mainly in "Yes, You Do," it's time to start shopping.

Yes, you do if...

Your key applications run under Windows NT.
You need to run applications like Pro/Engineer, Unigraphics, SolidWorks, or 3D Studio MAX.
Your work is graphics intensive.
Your software costs almost as much as your hardware, or more.
Your PC works all day, every day.

No, you don't if...

You use a suite of common business applications.
They run under Windows 95/98.
You work mainly with text and numbers.
Your software costs less than your hardware.
Your PC sits idle for hours each day.

You never wait more than a few seconds for your PC to finish what it's doing.