tbone wrote:
I'm trying to understand the significant differences are between the
normal workstation-type processors (Core 2 Duo, Extreme) and the
comparable core-count Xeon chips. Xeons appear to be oriented to
server use; why is that?


No real functional differences between Xeons or Core 2's, they are
really the same chips. The Xeons come with more support (warranty) for a
server environment. They are often equipped with more cache (though
that's not the case in Core 2 vs. Core 2-based Xeon).

Yousuf Khan