Itanium is a discontinued family of 64-bit Intel microprocessors that implement the Intel Itanium architecture. The Itanium architecture originated at Hewlett-Packard (HP), and was later jointly developed by HP and Intel. Launched in June 2001, Intel initially marketed the processors for enterprise servers and high-performance computing systems. In the concept phase, engineers said "we could run circles around PowerPC...we could kill the x86." Early predictions were that IA-64 would expand to the lower-end servers, supplanting Xeon, and eventually penetrate into the personal computers, eventually to supplant reduced instruction set computing (RISC) and complex instruction set computing (CISC) architectures for all general-purpose applications.
A workstation is a special computer designed for technical or scientific applications. Intended primarily to be used by a single user, they are commonly connected to a local area network and run multi-user operating systems. The term workstation has been used loosely to refer to everything from a mainframe computer terminal to a PC connected to a network, but the most common form refers to the class of hardware offered by several current and defunct companies such as Sun Microsystems, Silicon Graphics, Apollo Computer, DEC, HP, NeXT, and IBM which powered the 3D computer graphics revolution of the late 1990s.
Xeon is a brand of x86 microprocessors designed, manufactured, and marketed by Intel, targeted at the non-consumer workstation, server, and embedded markets. It was introduced in June 1998. Xeon processors are based on the same architecture as regular desktop-grade CPUs, but have advanced features such as support for error correction code (ECC) memory, higher core counts, more PCI Express lanes, support for larger amounts of RAM, larger cache memory and extra provision for enterprise-grade reliability, availability and serviceability (RAS) features responsible for handling hardware exceptions through the Machine Check Architecture (MCA). They are often capable of safely continuing execution where a normal processor cannot due to these extra RAS features, depending on the type and severity of the machine-check exception (MCE). Some also support multi-socket systems with two, four, or eight sockets through use of the Ultra Path Interconnect (UPI) bus, which replaced the older QuickPath Interconnect (QPI) bus.
Dell Precision is a series of computer workstations for computer-aided design/architecture/computer graphics professionals, or as small-scale business servers. They are available in both desktop (tower) and mobile (laptop) form. Dell touts their Precision Mobile Workstations are "optimized for performance, reliability and user experience."
Tick–tock was a production model adopted in 2007 by chip manufacturer Intel. Under this model, every microarchitecture change (tock) was followed by a die shrink of the process technology (tick). It was replaced by the process–architecture–optimization model, which was announced in 2016 and is like a tick–tock cycle followed by an optimization phase. As a general engineering model, tick–tock is a model that refreshes one side of a binary system each release cycle.
The Platform Controller Hub (PCH) is a family of Intel's single-chip chipsets, first introduced in 2009. It is the successor to the Intel Hub Architecture, which used two chips–a northbridge and southbridge, and first appeared in the Intel 5 Series.
Parallels Workstation Extreme is the first workstation virtualization product that lets users virtualize graphics-intensive software programs such as geophysical simulation, financial analysis, and digital content creation programs commonly used by engineers and digital animators in virtual machines on Windows and Linux hosts.
HP EliteBook is a line of business-oriented high-end laptops and previously mobile workstations made by Hewlett-Packard. The EliteBook series, which fits above the small business ProBook series, was introduced in August 2008 as a replacement of the HP Compaq high end line of business laptops. The EliteBook brand included mobile workstations until September 2013, when they were rebranded as HP ZBook. The EliteBook mainly competes against computer lineups such as Acer's TravelMate, Dell's Latitude, Lenovo's ThinkPad and Toshiba's Portégé and Tecra.
Skylake is Intel's codename for its sixth generation Core microprocessor family that was launched on August 5, 2015, succeeding the Broadwell microarchitecture. Skylake is a microarchitecture redesign using the same 14 nm manufacturing process technology as its predecessor, serving as a tock in Intel's tick–tock manufacturing and design model. According to Intel, the redesign brings greater CPU and GPU performance and reduced power consumption. Skylake CPUs share their microarchitecture with Kaby Lake, Coffee Lake, Whiskey Lake, and Comet Lake CPUs.
ThinkStation is a brand of professional workstations from Lenovo announced in November 2007 and then released in January 2008. They are designed to be used for high-end computing and computer-aided design (CAD) tasks and primarily compete with other enterprise workstation lines, such as Dell's Precision, HP's Z line, Acer's Veriton K series, and Apple's Mac Pro line.
Broadwell is the fifth generation of the Intel Core processor. It is Intel's codename for the 14 nanometer die shrink of its Haswell microarchitecture. It is a "tick" in Intel's tick–tock principle as the next step in semiconductor fabrication. Like some of the previous tick-tock iterations, Broadwell did not completely replace the full range of CPUs from the previous microarchitecture (Haswell), as there were no low-end desktop CPUs based on Broadwell.
HP ZBook is a brand of mobile workstations made by HP Inc. Introduced in September 2013, it is a successor to HP's previous mobile workstations in the HP EliteBook series. The ZBook mainly competes against PCs such as Dell's Precision and Lenovo's ThinkPad P series.
The Xeon D is a brand of x86 system on a chip designed, manufactured, and marketed by Intel, targeted at the microserver market. It was announced in 2014, with the first products released in 2015. Related to the Xeon brand of workstation and server processors are based on the same architecture as server-grade CPUs, with support for ECC memory, higher core counts, support for larger amounts of RAM, larger cache memory. Unique to the Xeon D line, emphasis was also made on low power consumption, and integrated hardware blocks such as a network interface controllers, a PCI express root complex, and USB and SATA controllers.
Ice Lake is Intel's codename for the 10th generation Intel Core mobile and 3rd generation Xeon Scalable server processors based on the Sunny Cove microarchitecture. Ice Lake represents an Architecture step in Intel's process–architecture–optimization model. Produced on the second generation of Intel's 10 nm process, 10 nm+, Ice Lake is Intel's second microarchitecture to be manufactured on the 10 nm process, following the limited launch of Cannon Lake in 2018. However, Intel altered their naming scheme in 2020 for the 10 nm process. In this new naming scheme, Ice Lake's manufacturing process is called simply 10 nm, without any appended pluses.
Sapphire Rapids is a codename for Intel's server and workstation processors based on the Golden Cove microarchitecture and produced using Intel 7. Featuring up to 60 cores and an array of accelerators, it is the first generation of Intel server and workstation processors to use a chiplet design.
Cascade Lake is an Intel codename for a 14 nm server, workstation and enthusiast processor generation, launched in April 2019. In Intel's process–architecture–optimization model, Cascade Lake is an optimization of Skylake. Intel states that this will be their first generation to support 3D XPoint-based memory modules. It also features Deep Learning Boost (DPL) instructions and mitigations for Meltdown and Spectre. Intel officially launched new Xeon Scalable SKUs on February 24, 2020.
The ThinkPad P series line of workstation laptops produced by Lenovo and was introduced by the company as a successor to the previous ThinkPad W series. With 15.6" and 17.3" screens, the ThinkPad P series saw the reintroduction of physically large laptops into the ThinkPad line. Marketed largely as portable workstations, many P series laptops can be configured with high-end mobile workstation-class Intel processors as well as error correction code (ECC) memory and a discrete Nvidia Quadro GPU. The P series offers independent software vendor (ISV) certifications from software vendors such as Adobe and Autodesk for various computer-aided design (CAD) software. The P52 and P72 models are the last current Lenovo laptops with a dedicated magnesium structural frame.
Raptor Lake is Intel's codename for the 13th and 14th generations of Intel Core processors based on a hybrid architecture, utilizing Raptor Cove performance cores and Gracemont efficient cores. Like Alder Lake, Raptor Lake is fabricated using Intel's Intel 7 process. Raptor Lake features up to 24 cores and 32 threads and is socket compatible with Alder Lake systems. Like earlier generations, Raptor Lake processors also need accompanying chipsets.
