Intel to unveil details on Merced
John G. Spooner, ZDNet
Intel Corp. (Nasdaq:INTC - news)'s first 64-bit processor may be a year away, but the semiconductor giant is already ramping up supporting products and technologies for the chip.
At its Intel Developers Forum in Palm Springs, Calif., next month, the company is expected to announce a host of new products and technologies, including 64-bit development tools. The company will also disclose plans for PC designs, processors and chip sets.
Of particular interest to developers will be the unveiling of details about Intel's first 64-bit processor, code-named Merced, said Pat Gelsinger, vice president and general manager of the Santa Clara, Calif., company's desktop products division.
Intel will provide advice on porting 32-bit applications to Merced and detail features such as its instruction set. Merced documentation will also be available.
On the desktop side, Intel will update attendees on the progress of Easy PC, a proposed specification for "legacy-free" PCs that eliminates older technologies such as ISA slots. Members of the Easy PC working group include Intel, Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq:MSFT - news) and PC makers such as Gateway Inc. (NYSE:GTW - news) Product prototypes of Easy PC will be shown for the first time at the conference.
While some engineers will be on hand to gather information on new Intel technology, many developers will use the occasion to rub elbows with the industry's brass.
"The real value is in making the connections and spending time with people ... the Intel folks and the Microsoft folks," said Matt Trask, president of Communica Inc., a Bourne, Mass., hardware design and software development company.
During his keynote, Intel's Gelsinger will discuss the connected home and the electronic business of the future. To that end, he'll demonstrate forthcoming technologies, such as new types of memory and connectivity pertinent to the demonstration, and reveal road maps for each.
"In the connected home, you're going to see some mind-blowing new [small] form factors," Gelsinger said. "What you'll see, for the first time, is implementations [of Easy PC] from many OEMs."
Those form factors will be enabled in part by the reduction of legacy components, but Intel will also contribute a new, smaller processor package called a "flip chip," which moves connector pins from the edge of the chip to the inside, reducing the size of the packaging. The first such chip, expected in late September, will be a 500MHz Pentium III.
Easy PCs are expected to cost less than traditional PCs and come in smaller, more innovative form factors, featuring technologies such as IEEE 1394 and Universal Serial Bus. Hardware OEMs are expected to begin shipping PCs based on the specification before the end of the year.
At the conference, Intel will also announce the establishment of the Rambus Direct RAM Implementers Forum. It will involve the "key drivers of the industry," Gelsinger said, including Intel and PC and memory makers.
Intel will also disclose details of its 820 chip set, due in September, which will include a 133MHz memory bus; a four-speed Accelerated Graphics Port; RDRAM support; and support for ATA 66, a new hard drive interface specification.
The 820 chip set should break bottlenecks that IT managers find in today's PCs, such as memory and graphics bandwidth.
The 820 chip set will also support SDRAM (synchronous dynamic RAM), which will be significantly less expensive than RDRAM. When it ships, the chip set will support 100MHz SDRAM. Intel did not have plans to support 133MHz SDRAM. However, due to concerns expressed by OEMs and memory makers, Intel is evaluating adding support for 133MHz SDRAM in the first half of next year, Gelsinger said.
When Intel introduces the 820 chip set, it will also announce a 533MHz Pentium III processor, said sources familiar with Intel's plans. A 600MHz Pentium III will follow, along with a 500MHz Celeron, likely early in the fourth quarter, sources said.
A Celeron processor with Intel's Streaming SIMD Extensions is due in the first half of next year, sources said.
|
