ECC memory is a big one. Usually getting a Xeon workstation comes with SMP, though not on the new Mac Pro. Big memory support. Lots of PCI lanes. Usually lots of space to drop in extra storage, a couple of 10GbE ports (the Mac Pro has just 1Gbps ports which is another oddity).
There are a lot of traditional reasons a so-called workstation features a Xeon.
Worth noting that there is a couple of Haswell (therefore AVX 2.0 supporting) Xeons -- the E3 v3s. Unfortunately they're the baby ones so they have ridiculous low max memory, no SMP, and max out at 4 cores. Hopefully the E5 v3s are out soon.
I honestly don't get how the Mac Pro hasn't gotten more mainstream criticism. It solves a problem that I don't remember anyone ever having (honestly a garbage can form factor seems like more of a nuisance than the flexible cubes we're all used to), while bringing a ton of problems to the table, and being a massive sunk cost for fixed hardware that is going to be outdated very, very quickly.
ECC memory is a big one. Usually getting a Xeon workstation comes with SMP, though not on the new Mac Pro. Big memory support. Lots of PCI lanes. Usually lots of space to drop in extra storage, a couple of 10GbE ports (the Mac Pro has just 1Gbps ports which is another oddity).
There are a lot of traditional reasons a so-called workstation features a Xeon.
Worth noting that there is a couple of Haswell (therefore AVX 2.0 supporting) Xeons -- the E3 v3s. Unfortunately they're the baby ones so they have ridiculous low max memory, no SMP, and max out at 4 cores. Hopefully the E5 v3s are out soon.
I honestly don't get how the Mac Pro hasn't gotten more mainstream criticism. It solves a problem that I don't remember anyone ever having (honestly a garbage can form factor seems like more of a nuisance than the flexible cubes we're all used to), while bringing a ton of problems to the table, and being a massive sunk cost for fixed hardware that is going to be outdated very, very quickly.