Barry - Re:"What is the Katmia? This one got by me. Haven't seen it mentioned."
Here is one artcile describing (in general terms) the Katmai chip.
Paul
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Copyright C|NET
news.com
Second MMX on horizon
By Brooke Crothers
December 18, 1996, 1:30 p.m. PT
Although the debut of Intel's (INTC) first
multimedia-enabled MMX chips is imminent,
the company is already at work on the next
generation of its multimedia processing
technology that will significantly improve 3D
graphics.
Users will have to wait a while, however, for
Intel's new and improved version of MMX. The
company is planning to bring out a P6 family
processor in 1998 that will include the new
version of MMX. The processor, code-named
Katmai after a volcano in Alaska, will use what
is being referring to as "MMX2," according to
Michael Slater, publisher of the Microprocessor
Report.
Slater believes that MMX2 will address the
performance needs of 3D graphics, a kind of
multimedia processing that the initial version of
MMX doesn't enhance significantly. Intel has
said that 3D rendering does not benefit
dramatically from MMX, though applications
that take advantage of Microsoft's Direct3D
programming interface will see some
improvements.
"We believe Intel is moving aggressively to
improve the multimedia performance of its
processors, particularly for 3D graphics," Slater
wrote in the Microprocessor Report, referring to
Katmai.
Specifically, Slater thinks that MMX2 will have
additional instructions and a larger cache
compared to the first release of MMX. Each
kind of processor has a unique instruction set
composed of commands that a processor
recognizes and can execute, often integrated
into the chip itself to speed processing.
The first version of MMX will be used in
MMX-enabled Pentium and P6-family Klamuth
processors, due for introduction in the beginning
of January and the second quarter, respectively.
The first few public appearances of the new
technology have made it clear that, for most
users, it will initially be of more value to gaming
and entertainment than to the business market.
In theory, the MMX multimedia functions
should eliminate the need for high-end,
expensive add-on graphics cards and some
communications components for entry-level
PCs, as well as enhance the performance of
multimedia hardware on more expensive PCs.
For users to get any bang out of their buck on
the MMX, they will have to use software written
to support the technology. However, very little
business software has been rewritten to take
advantage of MMX.
Enter Katmai, which is expected to take Intel
processors to the next level of computing.
"These moves will both drive another PC
upgrade cycle and protect against a significant
incursion from the media processors," Slater
said in his newsletter.
Media processors from companies such as
Chromatic Research are highly specialized chips
that are adept at speeding up the processing of
multimedia applications. MMX also promises to
bring down the price of PCs by eliminating the
need for specialty chips and boards, but if media
processors really deliver better performance they
could slow Intel's plans for widespread adoption
of the MMX technology.
Intel is also expected to bring out a chip later in
1998, code-named Williamette, that is expected
to be a 32-bit P6 family processor with
additional "significant" improvements,
according to Slater. "This is what the P7 would
have been if Intel and Hewlett-Packard weren't
doing a new [64-bit Merced] architecture," he
said.
Intel is an investor in CNET: The Computer
Network. |
