Samsung making Alpha Chips.................................
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09-03-97 : SEC Begins Mass Production of World's Fastest 533-MHz Alpha Processors
By Yu Kun-ha Staff reporter
Samsung Electronics Co. (SEC) said yesterday it has begun mass production of 533-megahertz (MHz) Alpha processors, the world's fastest central processing units (CPU). The company developed its first Alpha chip last October and has since had samples of its 21164 Alpha processors tested by major international computer manufacturers.
Samsung said its chips have drawn a favorable response since they are fully compatible with Digital Equipment Corporation's (DEC) Alpha product families, which are now in production. Samsung will turn out the Alpha 21164 in 400-MHz, 433-MHz, 466-MHz, 500-MHz and 533-MHz speeds. Currently, the 533-MHz chip has the world's fastest data-handling speed. The new CPUs are for workstations and PC servers running on Windows NT and Unix operating systems. For personal computers, Samsung has developed low-power, low-price chips called KP21164PC. The Alpha chips for PCs will hit the market within the first half of next year.
According to Samsung, the Alpha 21164 and 21164PC processors are the microprocessors of choice for any processor-intensive tasks such as 3-D rendering, MPEG-2 encoding/decoding, Dolby AC-3 surround systems, DVD processing and playback, and CAD/CAM, graphics manipulation and server applications. Samsung said DEC's Motion Video Instruction set (MVI) is a true 64-bit instruction ``enhancement'' set optimized specifically for video. MVI can accelerate the Alpha 21164 and 21164PC processors' integer and floating- point performance to the level required for real-time, full-motion MPEG video.
The raw power of Alpha, according to Samsung, is several generations ahead of alternative architectures. The new Alpha processors are also the first 64-bit processor to which Microsoft is porting its NT 5.0 operating system. With clock speeds and performance significantly faster than any available processors, the Alpha processors are seen as the ultimate platform for visual computing, enabling a ``Jurassic Park'' experience to Alpha desktop users.
SEC plans to stage a joint ``AlphaPowered'' marketing campaign with DEC, while at the same time exploring markets for its new chips on its own. SEC said it will begin production of an even faster 600MHz version, already achieved in the R&D line, within this year. Samsung said its Alpha chip production target for this year is 4,000 but production volume will surge to 110,000 units next year and to one million in 1999.
The company intends to develop the CPU business as the core of its semiconductor operation and apply its new CPU expertise to development of logic and high-speed memory products. |
