Xeon
The first Xeon-branded processor was the Pentium II Xeon (code-named "Drake"). It was released in 1998, replacing the Pentium Pro in Intel's server lineup. The Pentium II Xeon was a ""Deschutes"" Pentium II (and shared the same product code: 80523) with a full-speed 512 kB, 1 MB, or 2 MB L2 cache. The L2 cache was implemented with custom 512 kB SRAMs developed by Intel. The number of SRAMs depended on the amount of cache. A 512 kB configuration required one SRAM, a 1 MB configuration: two SRAMs, and a 2 MB configuration: four SRAMs on both sides of the PCB. Each SRAM was a 12.90 mm by 17.23 mm (222.21 mm²) die fabricated in a 0.35 µm four-layer metal CMOS process and packaged in a cavity-down wire-bonded land grid array (LGA). The additional cache required a larger module and thus the Pentium II Xeon used a larger slot, Slot 2. It was supported by the 440GX dual-processor workstation chipset and the 450NX quad- or octo-processor chipset.
Victim cache
Processor performance and frequency has grown rapidly over the past three decades. Post mid-1980's it has grown by 52% annually largely driven by organisational and architectural ideas. 64-bit Intel Xeon processor (2004) can clock at 3.6 GHz thus having a cycle time of 0.27 ns. Memory cycle time however has not grown at this fast rate. This has resulted in processor cycle times being currently much faster than memory cycle times, and the trend has been for this gap to increase over time. The problem of increasing memory latency, relative to processor speed, has been dealt with by adding high speed cache memory.